Originally this conference was
intended to be a local experience-sharing conference for the Western regions.
Its purpose is to help students in the Western regions of the U.S. to cultivate
better, and to have a better cultivation environment—the goal is simply this.
Because it is a regional conference and mainly intended to resolve the local
issues they have here, it wasn’t mentioned to a lot of people, nor did we
spread the word to other parts of the world. A more important reason is that I
want everyone to have a stable environment and to cultivate with a peaceful
mind, free of any interference. There are now many associations and assistance
centers in different regions, and so there are a lot of activities. If you all
follow me wherever I go, you won’t have time for cultivation, nor will you have
a stable cultivation environment. That wouldn’t benefit your cultivation. So I
don’t wish to have more people running around. Of course, you all understand
this intention, but you still wish to see Master. I understand the feeling.
Actually, it is even easier to see me if you have cultivated yourself well.

Since you have come, let’s all
listen and see, with calm minds, what improvements and experiences students on
the West Coast have had in their cultivation during this recent period of time.
From their speeches and sharing of experiences we will be able to find where we
have fallen behind, which will allow us to better improve ourselves in
cultivation. Everyone should also make a self-assessment, search for his
shortcomings, and help each other make forward progress. This is the
fundamental objective of our Fa conferences. If our Fa conference can’t serve
this purpose, then it shouldn’t be held; it would amount to nothing, and it
would lose its meaning. All cultivation forms of Dafa, as well as everything I
do, are all for the purpose of enabling everyone to improve as quickly as
possible. If this was not the case and this goal couldn’t be accomplished, I
wouldn’t do these things. Of course, among the cultivation forms you have at
present, in addition to the practice there is also a form for spreading the Fa.
This is something left from the time when I began teaching the Fa and it has
been kept up through to this day; it too is very important and can indeed bring
very good results. Accordingly, your Fa conferences in different regions should
still continue to be held. But I think it would be better to hold regional and
small-scale conferences in individual regions. For large-scale Fa conferences,
I think it’s sufficient to hold them once or twice a year. Don’t hold them too
frequently and don’t let them fall into a mere formality. It is good only when
it serves the purpose of truly and solidly helping everyone improve.

As you know, I have already taught
this Fa to a very high level. It is relatively easier for you all to understand
the Fa through the book, Zhuan Falun. Regarding the Fa I taught later,
if you haven’t read Zhuan Falun and directly read the lectures given in
various regions, though you might understand them, they will not be able to
guide your cultivation in a coherent manner. Because the Fa is all encompassing
and is entirely connected, no matter how you read the Fa, it can provide
answers. Seen from the front, the back, or the middle—regardless of the methods
you use and how you read this Dafa—it is all connected and coherent, different
parts can all clarify each other, and they can achieve an interconnecting
effect. This is exactly the factor behind Dafa’s being all encompassing and
indestructible. As to the Fa I taught in other regions, it was actually taught specifically
to different regions and with different situations
being considered. I have talked more about the structure of the universe
particularly in the U.S. and in some European countries; and that, of course,
is inseparable from your cultivation. What is the purpose of your cultivating?
After reaching Consummation, you certainly won’t be in this dimension; it
inevitably involves other dimensions as well as the structure of the universe.
That is why I have talked about these things. But, to students in different
regions and depending on different situations, I always teach the Fa from
different angles and in different ways. This is a characteristic of my teaching
the Fa.

Since everyone has things that he
is attached to, and everyone thinks that there is a truth in ordinary people’s
society that he has come to know for himself, he then holds on to it to go on
living his life. In fact, I would like to tell you that no matter what
principles you have enlightened to among ordinary people, all of them are wrong
in the eyes of beings at any level higher than mankind, since the entire human
society is the opposite [of higher realms]. So, in order to break this obstacle
of yours—namely, the notions you have formed that are severely interfering with
your obtaining the Fa—I have used different approaches in lecturing on the Fa
in different regions for different people so as to break the obstacles in your
minds, which are barriers to obtaining the Fa. Many people who came to the U.S.
from China are very accomplished and have advanced schooling. Many have degrees,
and they all feel that they have a relatively clear understanding of modern
science. But as a matter of fact, what you believe to be a clear understanding
is itself an obstacle. The reason is, as I have discussed on many occasions,
this science is itself actually not scientific. It is merely something imposed
on man by aliens, something that has penetrated the entire society and pervaded
it in every respect. Since you are in the midst of it, you certainly can’t tell
what it is all about. Then why have I incorporated modern science in teaching
the Fa? Because science has altered human notions and behavior. The change in
mankind’s living conditions has led to the change in human behavior, and all
human cultures have changed. As to the cultures outside of science, including
the cultures of all ethnic groups, people today don’t understand them. Only by
my using the methods of modern science to discuss the circumstances of this
universe will contemporary people be able to understand and know the
fundamental reasons for real matter in the universe, the fundamental reasons
for life, and the fundamental reasons for the universe. In this way, the
so-called truth that you think you have found among ordinary people will be
broken and eliminated, and breaking this thing will help you obtain the Fa—the
real truth. When you discover that that thing isn’t really the truth, it is
easier for you to obtain the Fa. So this is one of the characteristics of my
teaching this Fa according to different people, different situations, and
different regions—that is, incorporating the deviated notions of modern people
as I teach the Fa. Of course, many of you, particularly those with a relatively
advanced education, have developed over a long period of time a habit and
mindset that is inquisitive about science, about knowledge. Once these people
encounter something like this, they like to explore it and know more about it.
Because they have become accustomed to pursuing knowledge, and as the result of
a mentality that never feels satisfied, they always want to explore more. In
fact, by using human thinking, human notions, the present level of human
achievement, or future levels of achievement, you will never be able to
discover what the universe ultimately is—it will be utterly impossible to
detect. That’s because human thinking and human language can only describe
things within a certain boundary. Beyond that boundary, mankind does not have
the type of language needed to describe it. Not only is there no language to
describe it, but you will also lack that type of vocabulary, as the existing
vocabulary has no way to match it. No matter how you describe it, it wouldn’t
be described. This is why sometimes it’s not so easy for me to teach you the Fa
as I lecture.

Another point is that
human thinking follows a certain program. But since this program no longer
works, you can’t speak clearly about the universe. On many occasions, including
while reading the Fa, students can understand the Fa in their minds but can’t
put it into words. All students have had this feeling of being able to
comprehend the Fa but not being able to express it clearly. That is, it isn’t
something that can be explained clearly with ordinary people’s thinking or
language. Nevertheless, I am trying my best to teach the Fa by using human
language, and to allow everyone to understand it. Last time when I was teaching
you the Fa in Geneva, I already found it rather difficult; I felt that I didn’t
explain things clearly on my part.

I recently published six books.
They are last year’s Fa lectures in Singapore, Geneva, Frankfurt, the first Fa
conference in North America, and the Fa conference for assistants in Changchun.
Another one is a collection of those four-line inscriptions that I wrote for
students, which can also be called poems—that’s the kind of book it is. There
are altogether six books, and all have been published. What’s the purpose? The
things I talked about in different regions were only suitable for those
particular circumstances. When they are taken out of that context and heard in
other settings, though they might still achieve some effect since they are Fa
after all, they will have lost their targets and could easily mislead those who
haven’t systematically listened to the Fa. Since that’s the situation, I
compiled them so as to make up for this deficiency, and they are all now
published. So once you get the books, you should destroy the videotapes you had
passed around in different regions. You know, the videotapes share another
major characteristic: When you listen to my answers to people’s questions, my
replies often don’t answer what was asked. Why is that? It’s because our time
is very limited, and as soon as I read the questions some people raise in their
notes, you understand them, and so I use the opportunity to address other
issues. If an audiotape that includes responses that don’t address the
questions is passed around, other people won’t understand. We want to resolve
all of these problems, and so we have published the books. What I just meant is
that in different regions I talked about things in keeping with the
circumstances in those specific regions.

Last time I was in China, a while
before coming to the United States, I told people to bring together those
practitioners who are college professors and scientists in the scientific
community in Beijing, along with some Dafa assistants, so that I could talk to
them in detail about the subject of science. In the end, what I intended to do
wasn’t satisfactorily accomplished, because many other students showed up and
raised questions that didn’t focus on the subject I wanted to discuss. So it
became hard to talk about. I’m not against people wanting to listen to the Fa
or see me, but different regions have different situations. I don’t want to
talk much today since this is a Fa conference after all, and you will be giving
papers. Tomorrow I will answer your questions.

Since you are sitting here, I
might as well take this opportunity to talk to you about a few issues.

Let me first talk about the
subject of spreading the Fa. You have indeed put in a lot of effort, but
there’s an issue: You have found that in the recent period of time there are
very few new students. Why is that the case? Because this entire event was very
systematically arranged at the beginning. However, this arrangement was not
acknowledged by me, as it was arranged by the old forces in the universe under
the circumstance that I wasn’t aware of it and did not agree to it. This can
only be discussed briefly in a summary like this. Since it’s Fa-rectification,
what is being rectified? What are being rectified are all the old things that
have deviated from the Fa. The deviated things from the past have become a
force and formed a system, and these things have been playing a negative role
from top to bottom. I want to allow more people to obtain the Fa as I go about
imparting it. Since the old forces have already divided this event into
different stages and they think that the number of people for this affair has
already been reached, they are now restraining it. Originally I planned to have
200 million people listen to the Fa, but in the end, the old evil forces have
limited the number to 100 million. That is why you have had some difficulty
making progress when spreading the Fa. But this isn’t to say that people in the
future will not obtain the Fa; they are gradually coming to know and obtain the
Fa. You should continue to do whatever you should do. That said, you still
don’t need to drag a person to obtain the Fa. Cultivation is practiced on a
voluntary basis. If a person doesn’t cultivate, so be it. We shouldn’t change
anything simply because of the old forces’ interference. If you can allow those
who aren’t aware of the Fa to become aware, and those who don’t know about the
Fa to know, you have done the best you can, and that’s enough. What I just said
was to tell you that there exists a factor, and it has caused this situation.
But you shouldn’t get the wrong idea from what I said, as if you have come to
understand something new, and then talk about it out of context while holding
on to your own notions and attachments—that’s no good. Try to be sensible. I
was only telling you that it is this kind of situation.

On the other hand, in the course
of carrying out this undertaking today, I have linked you and the Fa together.
Why does your cultivation progress so rapidly? There are many, many factors
behind it; this is a major reason. While I am teaching this Fa and the entire
Fa-rectification process is taking place, there are living beings at different
levels listening to the Fa; the cultivators in the human world who listen to
the Fa at the lowest level are you, so you are linked to this Dafa. Although
you are the ones who listen to the Fa at the lowest level, you won’t stay at
the lowest level forever. You will achieve Consummation and reach different
realms and different levels—it is fully connected from top to bottom. When this
undertaking is over in the future, the people who come to cultivate at that
time will have nothing to do with today’s Fa-rectification event. They will take
up cultivation in the normal way.

This Dafa of the universe that I
teach today is also the greatest opportunity mankind has been given, since
cultivation with such an immense Fa was certainly unimaginable in the past. You
can now obtain the Fa, you can listen to me teaching you the Fa in person, and
moreover, you are linked to this matter of Fa-rectification—you haven’t yet
realized the significance of this! Sometimes some students fail to be diligent,
in which case they are being irresponsible to themselves! They are human beings
after all, have human thoughts, and can’t realize this, so they can only be as
they are. In fact, all of this is beyond words, and in the future you will know
how fortunate you are! (Applause)

Also, during the course of
cultivation you have all come to know that this environment of ours is very
good. At the practice sites everyone can open his heart and say freely what he
wants to. This isn’t possible anywhere else in human society. That’s why every student
can feel that upon arriving at the practice site he has entered into a pure
land and has stepped into a place that is most sacred. People all care about
each other in a way that “you care for me and I care for you.” This can’t be
found in any other human setting. Why can it be this way? It’s simply that
every Dafa disciple is cultivating himself. Once a problem or a conflict
emerges, everyone searches for his own shortcomings, looking to see whether it
was caused by his own wrongdoing. Everyone knows to do this, but some
individuals who aren’t persistent in studying the Fa still cannot do it. Since
I have mentioned this individual problem, I need to say that—and of course, I
have mentioned it to you on numerous occasions—when running into a conflict, everyone
should search inside themselves. Yet some people still can’t seem to search
within when they encounter a conflict. Some people can become aware of it,
while some aren’t even willing to consider it or even completely forget that
they are cultivators. I would say that’s not doing well enough. Whether it’s
between you and another student, whether it’s at the workplace, or whatever the
circumstance in human society, in those conflicts among students or between a student
and an assistant these persons have not thought about searching for the reasons
within themselves.

I often tell you about situations
like this: When two people have a conflict both should look for the causes
within themselves, asking, “What problem do I have here?” Each should search
for his own problem. If a third person witnesses the conflict between the two,
I would say that it’s not accidental for that third person to see it, and he
too should think it over: “Why did I see their conflict? Is it because I still
have some shortcomings?” Only in this way can it be good. Yet whenever you run
into a conflict, you always push it off to the others and find weaknesses and
shortcomings in others. Your doing that is not right. You could cause the work
for Dafa to suffer a loss and cause Dafa to suffer a loss. You haven’t realized
that you are all using Dafa and Dafa work to excuse your own shortcomings or
hide your own attachments. When you think that another person hasn’t done well,
when you can’t get over it in your mind, you should think about it: “Why is my
mind troubled by this? Does he really have a problem? Or is it that there’s
something wrong deep inside me?” You should think about it carefully. If you
indeed don’t have any problem and what he did is really problematic, you should
tell him with kindness, and that won’t lead to conflicts. It’s guaranteed. If
the other person isn’t able to understand it, that is his own problem. What you
have said is said.

Without conflicts there won’t be
improvement. Some people feel that the setting they’re in is very peaceful, and
everyone thinks his cultivation is going pretty well. In fact, let me tell you
that this isn’t good. What I want to do is precisely to create some conflicts
for you, for having none of these does you no good. That’s because only in the
midst of conflicts can your attachments be exposed and made visible to you and
others, and then they will be eliminated. If there weren’t such conflicts your
ordinary person’s attachments would not be eliminated. So, do pay some
attention to this: Under any circumstance, particularly when you cultivate
among ordinary people, it is inevitable that only through conflicts and through
xinxing interference can you improve your xinxing. Every time I
lecture I talk about this issue. At the time you were sitting there and
listening to the Fa, you were all quite clear about it. But once you stepped
out the door, you weren’t as good and you forgot.

Within
the recent period of time, particularly over the past two years, students’
progress has been tremendous, and their understanding of the Fa is increasingly
more mature. This is excellent. Ever since Dafa was made public I have been
taking you on the most righteous path of cultivation. Whether it’s in terms of
the way of teaching the Fa, the way of spreading the Fa in society, or what I
have taught everyone to do, it has been going down the most righteous path. And
because we are righteous, all those who aren’t will have an opinion about us,
for all those who are not righteous are exposed in front of Dafa. So they are
sure to bring some adverse effects to Dafa, and make negative comments about Dafa.
That’s certain.

But on the other hand, if there
weren’t negative factors and this Dafa was passed along smoothly and
peacefully, I’ll tell you: It would have to be something with the same moral
standard as modern man, and that would be why today’s people wouldn’t have
anything bad to say about it. It is precisely because we are on a very
righteous path that all those who aren’t righteous can be exposed, that the unrighteous
things in you can be removed, and that everything that’s not upright in
ordinary people’s society can be rectified. Those matters in society are not
things that you are to go out and intentionally do, for when bad things are
exposed ordinary people will notice them on their own. Human beings still have
goodness in their hearts and still have their benevolent nature; when people
see their shortcomings and mistakes, they will know what to do on their own,
and this will inevitably play the role of rectifying people’s hearts. In your
cultivation you should primarily focus on how to be diligent, and spend more
effort on this, instead of being concerned with what ordinary people’s society
is like or what you should do for society; you don’t have this duty, nor have I
asked you to do that. You are cultivators, and only the question of how to
improve your own xinxing is fundamental to cultivation.

You know that there are now 100
million people studying and cultivating in Dafa. The number of people has in
itself already played the role of initiating changes to rectify people’s hearts
in society—that’s inevitable. Yet this isn’t what I intended to do. In
particular, during the process of its spreading, Dafa has its tribulations and
there are the criticisms of ordinary people against Dafa. How should you cope
with these problems? Our students haven’t copied the violent actions that
ordinary people use, nor adopted the method of “if you treat me like this, I’ll
do the same to you” that people use or the ones that are even worse. You
haven’t done it that way; you handle all of it with benevolence. This is also a
factor that allows Dafa to develop in a healthy way. Of course, every ordeal
that you encounter also establishes mighty virtue for you and for Dafa.

As you have seen, so many people
will attain Consummation in the future—they will cultivate to Consummation.
Gods in the heavens will ask: “How did you reach Consummation? How did you
cultivate up to here? With which Fa did you cultivate up to here?” Of course,
you know that small cultivation ways can’t save people, and common methods
can’t save a god beyond the Three Realms. However mighty and high a Fa is,
that’s how great of a god it is who can be established through salvation and
how high of a level the saved person can reach. In the future, when others want
to see how you rose up there, they will find that you are truly worthy of being
one who has ascended through cultivation in Dafa. The mighty virtue established
by this Dafa is itself also extremely important. If one of you is doing well,
it is a matter of your individual cultivation; if people in one region are
doing well, it means that students in that region are doing well; if we are
doing very well the whole world over or in every region where there are Dafa disciples,
it’s no longer a matter of one region or one individual, but of the entire Dafa
doing well and its being on an upright course.

Next I will address another issue.
There’s certainly this type of student in the U.S., but there are very few of
them; there are relatively more in mainland China. That is, some were once lay
Buddhists and are very interested in Buddhism or other religions. Through
supernormal abilities or by listening to others, some people can see or,
through word of mouth, know that Dafa can save people and that at present only
this Dafa can save people. So they know and understand the situation that has
come about in religions. And they have learned that religions can’t save people
anymore whatsoever. Since gods no longer take care of people, scriptures have lost
the inner meanings behind their words and have thus lost their real effectiveness
in saving people. So after these people understood this, they came to learn
Dafa. But on a fundamental level they have not given up the stuff from before
or their attachment to religion. They are holding on to their old things and
attempting to achieve their goals by taking advantage of Dafa and using Dafa.
The intention is really bad. Of course, some intentionally do so, and know full
well that they’re going about it like that; I have fenced them off and
absolutely will not allow them to obtain anything. That’s because they are
taking advantage of Dafa, and that in itself, for a human being, is awfully
wrong and a terrible intention. If they are unaware—that is, the superficial
layer of the person doesn’t quite understand and is muddle-headed—then I will
try my best to correct them and have them come to understand the issue. I bring
this up today to let them know: That is absolutely not permitted.

As you know, what I’m teaching is
the Fa of the universe, and every cultivation way and every school of teaching
is contained in this universe and is encompassed by this Fa. Living beings at
each level are all created by the Dafa of the universe. Every paradise, every
God’s paradise or Buddha’s paradise, the universe at each level, and the cosmic
bodies at each level are all created by this Dafa. Doesn’t it encompass
everything? Many people in this Dafa are beings who belonged to the worlds of
Buddhas; the lives of many were as Daos; and many were gods of Western people
or were living beings who belonged to their paradises. And there are still more
living beings from many, many different gods’ paradises that neither you nor
mankind know about and who have come here to obtain Dafa. Why can Dafa enable
them to return? The reason I can truly enable them to go back is that what I
have taught is the fundamental Great Fa of the universe, whereas the Fa of any
individual paradise is but the affirmed principles that one has understood and
enlightened to from various levels of the universe. None of them can be
compared with Dafa.

Why do I disapprove of you
[simultaneously] cultivating other things and tell you to cultivate in Dafa
singly? Because Dafa has integrated and addresses situations at different
levels as well as those of different beings, and only this way can you go back.
Not only does it not change anything innate that you previously had, but it can
also at the same time guide you back. You know that many of our students have
seen that they are Daos, there are some who have seen that they have the
appearance of a Western god, and there are some who have an image belonging to
the Buddha school. They are all cultivating in Dafa, yet I won’t cause any of
their things to be lost or botched up. Regardless of which cultivation way they
cultivated in before, I am able to guide them all back, and this is the only
way. Only with the Fa of the universe can it be done. This is the biggest
difference between Dafa and any other cultivation way or religion from before.

In fact, no one knows that even
though many people talk about believing in Buddhas or believing in gods, the
truth is, if you aren’t someone from that particular god’s world he won’t save
you whatsoever. I once made a statement that whether it’s Christianity or
Catholicism, in their paradises there are no Eastern people. This is an
absolute truth which man doesn’t understand. Yet Western religions went to the
East with the Crusades, and the way they spread wasn’t good to begin with,
since both Jesus and Yahweh prohibited their disciples from spreading the
teachings eastward. It was to prevent the mixing of human races, but they
didn’t understand this. I once said that Jesus has many venerable images but
that you don’t use them. Yet you do use the image of him being crucified on the
cross as the symbol. Doesn’t that make it seem as if people want to have Jesus
crucified on the cross forever?? Humans still think that they’re doing
something good. Actually, what people want to do and what they have done aren’t
necessarily good things. Why do gods still look after people? Because people
still believe in gods. People are lost in delusion, so what do they know?

Dafa
is able to have all lives return to the places where they were created. That is
something I can definitely do. In the actual practice ofFa-rectification,
this has been done for high-level beings, regardless of how high their levels.
Out of my many, many disciples, quite a few have succeeded in cultivation over
the past few years; those who have achieved Consummation or who are approaching
Consummation are quite many. Because the entire matter hasn’t yet come to an
end they are being restrained. They can know everything and see everything, but
their supernatural abilities and divine powers aren’t allowed to be used, for
this Earth wouldn’t be able to bear it. Of course, students have also come to
understand these things gradually through discussion and sharing experiences
with each other; many things are becoming more and more clear. That’s why I am
telling you about these things. What it means is, if you don’t belong to that
race or you aren’t from that god’s paradise, he won’t take you.

Buddha
Shakyamuni said that the number of Tathagatas is as many as the grains of sand
in the Ganges River. When the lives in different paradises become bad they drop
down. Where do they drop to? They all drop to the center of the universe—it’s
the lowest place. The very center is this Earth, and it is a very special
environment. They all drop here, so they have fallen down. Since Buddhas are
compassionate and want to save the beings who have fallen down from their
worlds, they won’t let them go. So those that gods want to save are, in
essence, people from the gods’ own worlds; they absolutely cannot touch beings
from other worlds. And why is that? Because all elements that compose a
particular being are elements from that god’s own world. Once those elements
are removed, that life will disintegrate. It’s not something a being can do arbitrarily.
In the past, people all believed in Buddhas and worshipped Buddhas or Gods.
Actually though, that was merely a kind of righteous thought of belief in the
divine. That Buddha couldn’t take care of the person whatsoever, even if he
wanted to. Of course, gods like Shakyamuni and Jesus who came down to save
people are special cases. There are definitely many issues involved, and we
won’t discuss them here. What I am saying is that Dafa is able to
achieve this [i.e., take care of other gods’ beings]. For those who, deep
inside, still haven’t let go of the things from their past, I bring this issue
up today so as to give them a chance. If they still don’t let go, they will
miss this chance. Dafa is solemn and cultivation is serious.

Next,
I’ll address one other subject for you, something students can’t explain
clearly in cultivation, namely, the “heavens” (tian). According to
contemporary science, spaceships have traveled to outer space and flown to many
other planets, but they haven’t seen any human beings or paradises of gods, nor
were there the scenes of different heavens within the Three Realms that people
have talked about. So modern people use this logic to reject religion, deny
legends from the past, and negate the most essential nature of human beings.
Actually, the “heavens” that gods refer to isn’t at all the same concept as the
heavens human beings see. I often say that molecules compose everything in this
material dimension of human beings, while microcosmic matter is the reason for
the composition of molecules, and layers of even more-microcosmic matter are
the fundamental reasons for the composition of layers of particles at different
levels. Gods are in extremely microcosmic worlds, which are nonetheless
extremely vast worlds, broad spaces. The microcosmic worlds and the dimensions
formed in the microcosm that I have told you about in each lecture are where
gods reside. Think about it: Gods… I mentioned the other day that things in the
human dimension, such as air, matter, soil, rocks, iron and steel—everything in
this dimension, including your body—are composed of molecules. Yet molecules
are the coarsest, most superficial, and filthiest matter in the universe. These
molecules—actually, in the eyes of gods, all molecules—are seen as dirt and considered
mud in the universe, and this is the understanding merely at the level of
Tathagata. That’s why what was said in the past about Yahweh and NüWa using mud
to create man was true. It is because even your flesh is made of molecules, and
in the eyes of gods, it’s mud, it’s dirt, and something that is most coarse.
Then think about it, everyone: No matter how far spaceships may travel, have
they flown beyond the realm of molecules? Say an airplane flies in the sky and
you travel from Asia to America. You feel like you have flown rather high and
quite far; the fact is, you are merely moving inside mounds of molecules and
you are all moving on the ground—this isn’t the heavens in the least. In the
eyes of gods, it is only a matter of different long or short distances within
substances of the same level. The dimensions composed of microcosmic worlds are
the real heavens that gods refer to. The more refined and microcosmic a
substance is, the more quintessential and refined the surface it composes.

Energy exists in all
matter, including molecules. It is only because the human body and everything
around you is composed of molecules—even the machines you use to measure that
energy are also composed of molecules—that you can’t detect the energy of
molecules. The more microcosmic the matter is, the more energy it has and the
stronger its radioactive power is—the more microcosmic, the more powerful. That
is why gods’ energy and forms of existence are like that. So let me word it a
bit more clearly for you: People on Earth see that the Moon, the Sun, Venus,
Mars, as well as the Milky Way, outer space, the remote cosmic bodies, and so
on, are all in the heavens. But if you look at Earth from Mars, wouldn’t you
say that it too is in the heavens? It’s in the heavens as well. This is an
understanding that breaks through ordinary people’s ways of thinking.

But, understood at a deeper
level—think about it—what are the heavens? Once you enter a microcosmic
dimension, that is the heavens. Let me give the simplest example and tell
you a story. In the past, there was a cultivator of the Dao walking on the
street while drinking. He suddenly saw someone. This person was just who he had
been looking for—someone who could cultivate the Dao. So he wanted to save this
person and take him as his disciple. He asked this person, “Do you want to
follow me to cultivate the Dao?” This person’s enlightenment quality and inborn
quality were very good, and he said, “I do.” “Do you dare to follow me?” the
cultivator asked. The person replied, “Yes, I do!” “Do you dare to follow me
wherever I go?” he then asked. “Yes,” was the reply. The cultivator then said,
“Okay. Now follow me!” Saying that, he put his palm-sized wine gourd on the
ground, opened the lid, and jumped into the gourd. The person saw that his
master had jumped in, so he imitated his master and likewise jumped into the
gourd. The bystanders all leaned over and looked inside the gourd. “Wow!” they
exclaimed. There was a vast world inside the gourd, really vast. Viewed with
human thinking, how could it be possible for a person so big to jump into such
a small wine gourd? That’s because when you want to enter that dimension,
everything of your body has to conform to the state of that dimension before
you can enter. When you travel through the gaps between different dimensions,
your body inevitably enters those states of being. This is because the more
microcosmic particles of matter are, the more vast and broad the planes are at
their levels. At the levels of microcosmic particles, the way the gourd
manifests is different from the form that human beings see; all particles are
connected. What appears to be large or small to human beings is only a form of
manifestation in the space-time formed by the same particles. That is to say,
the surface of the gourd is formed by molecules, and that’s the shape you see,
but the gourd in the microcosm isn’t like this. It is connected to the universe
at that realm. Do you understand what I said? (Applause) I’m just
discussing that kind of idea. This is something that man cannot understand and
that can’t be understood by human conceptions.

So, having mentioned a person
going up to the heavens, I can say that if you suddenly enter a stone, isn’t
that going up to the heavens? It won’t do if you enter the surface formed by
the stone substance. You enter the realms of the microcosmic particles that
form its molecular particles—aren’t you going to the heavens? Aren’t you in the
heavens if you shrink into the microcosmic levels of your body? When you enter
the microcosmic particles of the surface particles of dimensions at any
level—in other words, enter the layer of particles smaller than that one—you
are already in the heavens. It’s just that the levels of heavens are different,
and the microcosmic degree is different. After you enter the microcosm,
although you see that you enter the stone, enter your body, or enter a certain
thing, you have actually entered the broad universe connected to that
dimension. In other words, this isn’t the human way of thinking. I often say
that what people refer to as east, west, south, or north, up, down, in, or out,
doesn’t exist in the universe, and it’s different from human thinking and
concepts. After I explain it like this you will understand, “Oh, it’s not at
all like it is when you use human thinking to contemplate it.” The present-day
science is very shallow. It can’t detect or know the real heavens because it
crawls within only the current material dimension, and this has limited it. And
the science imposed upon man by aliens is thus confined to this. Aliens are
living beings in this dimension as well, and they are similarly incapable of
knowing the truth of the universe.

Man does not believe in gods, and
this is no simple problem. It is man destroying human morality. When man
believes in karmic retribution, believes that doing good deeds is rewarded and
doing bad deeds meets with retribution, and that whatever man does is watched
by gods, man then won’t dare to do evil things. Man knows that doing good deeds
will accumulate virtue (de) and be rewarded with happiness, which is
absolutely true. But man no longer believes these things; science nowadays
doesn’t believe in them, and it considers them superstition. This is exactly
swinging the club of science to strike at people’s righteous thinking. Isn’t
this striking at the most essential nature of human beings? When people’s
morality, upright beliefs, and righteous thinking are destroyed to the point of
nonexistence, people will recklessly do whatever they want to and will resort
to any means to achieve their goals. This is one of the fundamental reasons for
the deterioration of human society. People in Western society appear to believe
in God, but they don’t really believe in God: What they truly believe in is
science. Gods are not like what they have imagined, that is, beings with human
emotions. Just now I corrected a key concept for you, namely, how “heavens” are
to be understood. What gods and human beings mean when they each speak of
“heavens” are two different things.

During the course of cultivation, many
people sometimes see that they seem to have entered their own bodies. Their
bodies are like a vast sky, they move in the sky and walk among thecosmic
bodies, and doors are opened one after another as they dash forward. When they
take a closer look or expand their minds one step further to take a look, they
realize, “Oh, it’s the energy channels in my body being opened.” Let’s think
about it. When you are cultivating, your bodies are being changed from the
utmost microcosm on up. So what is the utmost microcosm? Aren’t your other
bodies precisely in the heavens and in those realms? It is only that you the
person have fallen into the midst of ordinary people, and along with that, you
have fallen to where ordinary people are; even the part that’s the most
microcosmic has dropped to the level of ordinary people. However, if you can
return through cultivation, everything will be rectified for you, so you will
go through that experience. Many cultivators in history have seen those
phenomena [that I just described], but they weren’t able to describe it.
Sometimes those in the Buddhist religion say that Buddha is in one’s mind,
while people in the Dao school say that the human body is a small universe, and
so on, and this has to do with their having seen such things.

When I was talking
about science I said that science is not playing a good role. Not only does
it pollute mankind’s environment and destroy the tissues of the human body, but
also aliens will eventually replace human beings. Its things have penetrated
every field in human society, mankind can’t break away from science, and
everything is now created by science. Since this is the case, as Dafa
disciples, no matter what your professions are, you should just go ahead and do
your work, and do your work well—that will be good enough. As for everything
that is happening, don’t concern yourself with it. I’m not telling you to
oppose this science, nor am I teaching you to break free from it. That’s not
what I mean. I am telling you what science is. Science’s understanding of many
things is terribly shallow; even its understanding of matter in this existing
dimension is inadequate. Its inability to recognize the existence of divine
beings has limited its development. For instance, scientists nowadays are
saying that mankind’s industrial pollution is quite severe, and one of the
examples is that freon and other substances used in coolants are said to cause
damage to the ozone layer. They say that damage to the ozone layer has occurred
at the South Pole, where a hole has appeared. The fact is, science is incapable
of realizing the role played by gods, so people say that the hole was caused by
damage to the ozone layer. It is true that the pollution brought on by modern
industry has polluted mankind’s air to an extremely terrible extent.

Yet the countless lives in the
microcosms of the immense universe are, whether they have form or not, all
gods, and they exist in microcosms that human beings can’t see. Air is composed
of molecular particles, while molecular particles are composed of
more-microcosmic particles. In the air itself there are countless layers—layer
after layer, progressing toward the microcosm—and all [that exist there] are
gods. When they saw that man’s environment had become like this, they opened up
a window, opened a door, to expel the waste gases from Earth. This was done by
gods. They opened it on purpose and then closed it. If gods didn’t protect
human beings, humans would not survive. Man not only doesn’t believe in gods,
but also even dares to disrespect gods. Let’s use the simplest example. You
know that the places where industrial pollution is most severe are the most
populated places—big cities. Why didn’t a hole develop in the ozone layer above
those places? That’s because gods think that opening a hole in the South Pole
area is safe for man. It should be that wherever there are more waste gases
there is a hole in the ozone layer, right, so why isn’t it that way? It is
nothing like what people have imagined. There is also a large hole above the
Qinzhang Plateau in China—the big holes always appear in sparsely inhabited
areas. It’s not just limited to the ozone layer that we can see, for the
microcosmic materials contained in matter are quite numerous, and they all must
make way so that those things can be evacuated. Of course, this is what gods
have done for man.

Mankind’s pollution has caused
even more serious problems. You know that almost no fresh water in the world is
pure. Whether it be underground water or above-ground water, no matter how
people filter or purify water, water’s real purity cannot be reached. Moreover,
people reuse water repeatedly and water becomes more and more polluted because
human water circulates—fresh water is a circulating substance. Fresh water
doesn’t mix with seawater since they aren’t the same substance. Life exists in
any matter and in any object. You see that on the surface it is water, but over
on the other side it is imbued with life. When soil, water, air and the like
are polluted more and more, the harm to mankind also becomes greater and
greater. The development of today’s human society is a repeat of the
development of the last human society; the last cycle was a trial run for this
cycle. If development continues along this path, human beings will become
deformed. Industrial waste gases and wastewater will cause human beings to
become deformed and look hideous, looking half demon, half human. That’s how it
will be if it develops further. What’s more, there is also people’s wicked behavior
that results from the factors of moral deterioration.

At this point I would like to take
the opportunity to talk about another issue. As you know, modern science was
brought to mankind by aliens. They came when the Industrial Revolution began in
the West. They started with mathematics and chemistry—started from the shallow,
simple knowledge of the earliest days—and penetrated on through to modern
machinery, and eventually they developed up to today’s computers. As
development continues further their ultimate goal will be to replace human
beings. How is the replacement to take place? As I mentioned, in the body of
today’s human beings almost everyone has a layer of the body that was created
by aliens. Why do I say that? It’s because all of the science that they
instilled in you has created a warped human mindset in your mind. There have
never been humans like this in any of mankind’s previous civilizations. When
the mind is like that, so is the body. As you know, every cell in your body is
you, and your brain is connected to the brain in every cell. In that case, the thought
processes inside the countless cells in your body are all the thoughts of
warped human beings, and the entire body has become like that. This ties into
why gods no longer regard man as human. When mankind is no longer human, what
is the point of gods’ saving it?

You know that when a person dies,
he doesn’t really die. The shell of the layer of the largest molecular
particles sloughs off, whereas the part of the body composed of microcosmic
particles below molecules hasn’t died. It is separated, as if a person takes
off a piece of clothing. It isn’t really dead. Yet the person in this dimension
has vanished, since the body needs to be cremated or buried and it will
eventually decompose and dissolve. It has departed from this dimension; that
is, this layer of particles has disappeared. Then, as to the alien culture that
I was just talking about, it is precisely using man’s own thinking to create
the bodily layer that it needs, and it is doing so without man being aware of
it. How will they ultimately replace human beings, then? You know that they
still have to find a way to replace the shell of the outermost surface of human
beings. This is the method of “cloning” that man now wants to use. Gods look
after people, and when they don’t look after someone, they won’t instill the
elements of life into that person.

This is to say, the reason you are
alive in this world is not that you have this flesh body, nor is it because
your mother gave you this body that you are alive. It is because you have your
main spirit (yuanshen) and the existence of all of your other spirits (shen)
that you can live. Why doesn’t a person keep living after he dies and the body
is laid down there, since it’s the same body after all? It’s because all of his
main spirits have left. That is, if a person isn’t given a spirit and isn’t
allowed to reincarnate at the time of birth, he will still be dead after he is
born. So what will happen? Aliens will enter. This is the ultimate means that
aliens will use to replace man—that is, cloning humans. Man is being used by
aliens to destroy himself, yet he is not aware of it and is still protecting
this science, destroying the human race. If humans are cloned en masse in the
future, those beings will all be aliens that have reincarnated in human bodies,
and there will be no more human race. Of course, the fact that I can address
this today means that all of these problems are being dealt with. Many have
even been resolved already. I disclosed this today to tell you of some
realities related to mankind’s recent development.

The formation of Earth is also unlike
what we human beings have imagined, with the theory of a “Big Bang” forming the
planet. It’s nothing like that. How was it formed? The present-day science’s
understanding of the foundation of matter, the foundation of life, and the
universe are completely wrong. Gods created this Earth. How was it created? As
you know, Earth has been remade many times. The subject of catastrophes has
been discussed in every religion. If this Earth itself is to have a
catastrophe—when mankind has deteriorated it will be destroyed, and it will be
destroyed on this Earth—it is a major calamity. There are even greater
calamities that happen, where the entire Earth is discarded. Since in the
process of transmigration a person carries karma with him, the more wrongdoing
a person does, the more karma he has. When he reincarnates into a plant the
plant will be covered with karma. Human eyes can’t see this, since karma exists
in a dimension lower than the layer of the largest molecules. Man reincarnates
into plants, objects, animals, or he may even reincarnate into soil or stones
when transmigrating, so karma is everywhere. What is Earth, then? It looks like
a planet of karma. That’s the meaning behind the idea of the “rotten apple”
that I have mentioned. It has become something so rotten—“What’s the point of
keeping it in the sacred and pure universe? Get rid of it!” Then it might well
be discarded.

When it’s said that Buddhas are
compassionate toward human beings, the reference is to the Buddhas who are
close to Earth, as they believe in compassion. Gods at extremely high levels
say, “What’s compassion?” They find that even compassion is an attachment. Are they
compassionate? They too are compassionate. But the realms and concepts of their
compassion are different. It’s just like what I said: The thinking is
different. They are compassionate toward the sentient beings who are closest to
them, and they consider gods at very low levels to be the same as ordinary
people. As for human beings, what do they account for? They are even lower than
microorganisms and bacteria. When a person kills bacteria while walking, who
would consider that killing, right? Those who turn bad—like excrement or a
piece of manure—should be disposed of. So where is there a concept of being
compassionate or not being compassionate in this? There is none. Man thinks
that he’s remarkable, while in the eyes of higher gods he is nothing. In this
vast universe there are tremendous differences amongst living beings in
different realms with respect to their forms of existence and understandings.
When I tell you about realms that are so immense and so high—and if you recall,
such a major level of the universe is only a speck of dust in the immense
cosmic body—what could Earth amount to? What could human beings amount to,
right? It is only human beings themselves who think that they are remarkable
and great. This Earth has been replaced many times, that’s the situation.

In the history of the immense
universe this Earth has been replaced many times. But how was it replaced?
Since the outermost surface layer of Earth is made up of substances of this
level—it is composed of matter made up of molecules of this dimension—Earth has
to be created with substances from this dimension. Different cosmic bodies of
this dimension in the universe all experience renewal and the state of
regenerating the new to replace the old. The immense gods in the universe
collected and categorized the dust or debris from the disintegration of certain
cosmic bodies and then made a new Earth. That is why when today’s scientists
study history and geology and make claims about how long it has been since a
certain material was created on Earth or how long a history Earth has, their
approach will never arrive at the truth. The reason being, some substances were
huge rocks or huge cosmic objects even before Earth was formed. They were
brought over here, and they existed before Earth was created. It is thus
impossible for you to figure out through studies how long the history of Earth
is. A lot of things may sound like myths when they are mentioned. I am
lecturing on the Fa to my cultivators, and you can accept it, as the Fa is not
taught to ordinary people or ordinary society.

When I talked about water I
mentioned oceans. Actually, what are oceans? Seawater and water are absolutely
not the same thing. Only fresh water is actually water, whereas seawater is
called “water” by human beings when it’s in fact another kind of substance.
Water is the element that creates life. As you know, in the universe Earth is
like a speck of dust when viewed from a very minor level. A god is so immense,
and the volume of his body is quite large. If he were to shed a tear the Earth
would be submerged. As a matter of fact, seawater is the drop of a god’s tear.
What I said might sound like a fairy tale. You can go ahead and test it to see
if the composition of seawater is the same as human tears. They are exactly the
same. If your tears could be magnified to the same volume as that of seawater
and you were to take a look, what living creatures would you see in it? Maybe
there would be a whale in there, too. It sounds like I’m joking when in fact
it’s true. I can explain the origin of all substances on the earth as well as
the origin of mankind. Because they are not related to your cultivation I don’t
want to talk about them. In fact, everything on Earth has its origin.

Do you know what the yellow soil
covering the surface of Earth is? It is actually the feces of beings at the
level higher than the human dimension. That is why gods said in the past that
humans are in a filthy world—that’s the meaning. Because the substances from
high-level beings are clean and pure, their feces seem clean to human beings.
Only things lower than mankind feel filthy to human beings, so when it’s
something higher than mankind, people find it clean. But there aren’t any
nutrients in things higher than the human dimension, since if it’s not filthy
there aren’t going to be any nutrients. So it’s very hard to grow anything in
yellow soil. Black soil came about from having decomposed plants mixed in,
which then allowed things to grow. Rotten plants turned the color of yellow
soil into black, which then contains nutrients and things of an organic nature,
and mankind uses it to grow crops. Things higher than human beings don’t
provide nutrients for plants.

Actually, many types of rocks are
the same as soil. Generally speaking, it’s stone if it was pressed very tightly
during the formation of Earth, and it’s soil if it was loose. But it isn’t
entirely like this. Red soil and red rock are actually the blood of enormous
beings. Many people present here are in the fields of physics and chemistry. If
you don’t believe me you can test it and study it. The elements it contains are
guaranteed to be the same as those in blood, except that it’s blood that has
been solidified for a long time. Red soil contains a large amount of iron, and
human blood is the same. So I would like to tell you that in the universe, red
blood is usually the blood of upright living beings. Demons’ blood is white, so
limestone is actually the blood of demons. Of course, it’s a dead and inert
substance; it doesn’t have any effect in this dimension. After being exploded
or destroyed, it is turned into rocks, sand, soil, and the like, so they don’t
retain demon nature. That’s why it doesn’t matter if people use it to paint
walls or make dyes.

Scientists now know that coal is
generated from huge amounts of plants. That’s what today’s science is capable
of knowing. But how could there be so many plants that turned into so much
coal? This is something they don’t know. Scientists now know that petroleum is
formed from the remains of living creatures’ bodies—this they know. But how
could there be so many remains that turned into so much oil? This they don’t
know, and they can’t figure it out no matter how hard they try. So there are
some people who want to disprove this theory by questioning how there could be
so many remains of animals and how there could be so many organisms. There’s
simply so much petroleum, after all. In fact, in the enormous universe and
throughout its long history, life goes on cycle after cycle. And when this
Earth was constructed, these types of things from the universe were built into
the new Earth on purpose—to be used as energy later on. That is why there can
be so much of it. It doesn’t belong to the living beings of just one cycle.
Even lives on Earth go on cycle after cycle and aren’t from the same period.
Contemporary scientific research can’t go beyond the history known at present,
and many of the understandings that science holds about modern history are
wrong. It believes that there couldn’t have been that much petroleum even if
man from the Stone Age on up to the present had killed every animal! What’s
more, there is so much coal and there are so many plants. They aren’t from one
cycle though, they aren’t from the lives of one period. Of course, there are
many other things, too many to address them all.

There are also things such as
diamond, gold, silver, and the like. Some metallic elements are the factors
required for the formation of the universe at various levels. They are
different from the compositional elements of Earth that I mentioned. But gold
and silver aren’t metallic elements from this universe. As for gold, you know
that a Buddha’s body is made of gold; the bodies of all gods who have reached
the realm of Tathagata are gold. In other words, gold is the remains of the
bodies of enormous upright beings. When a vast universe is disintegrated,
everything is smashed in an instant. I have also talked about how there is gold
of different levels and gold of different-sized particles—I talked about this
subject before. As for silver, it is the bodily remains of lives that are lower
than the level of Buddha, lives at the level of Bodhisattva.

Many people know that diamond has
a certain power, and that evil things are afraid of diamond. That is, negative
things with small amounts of energy are afraid of diamond because diamond can
absorb their energy. That’s why some people say that diamonds can dispel evil
spirits. It’s not necessarily that diamonds can dispel evil spirits, but
diamond is from shattered and exploded energy, something similar to gong.
Of course, it is dead and inert and doesn’t have any effect. But it’s something
of that nature after all, and so it has power.

Now don’t develop any attachments
over what I just talked about and go buy diamonds after returning home. What I
talk about is the Fa. Nothing from this dimension can be taken along, and also,
those are of no use to cultivators. Why were they destroyed by explosions? As I
said before, although it was gold, it wasn’t pure gold anymore, so it was destroyed
in an explosion. Why was gong exploded? It was no longer pure. On the
surface it looked very pure. But if it were observed from the microcosm or the
extreme microcosm, it would no longer be pure. I won’t talk more today. Let’s
listen to our students’ speeches.

Tomorrow you can pass up
question slips and I will answer your questions. But new students, it’s better
that you don’t submit them because time is precious and I won’t be able to
respond if every one of you submits a question. Many in the audience are people
who have already entered certain levels in cultivation, so the questions they
raise are crucial to their improvement in cultivation, and that’s the purpose
of our Fa conference. With the kinds of questions that new students raise, you
don’t have to ask me about those—you can get the answers from veteran students
or from the person next to you. So let’s not take up time. That’s one thing.
Another is, try not to raise questions that aren’t related to cultivation or
questions that seek knowledge and the like. Don’t misunderstand what I
explained to you: It wasn’t [said because it was] meant to enrich your
knowledge, but because it relates to your cultivation. Okay, that’s all I want
to say. (Applause) Let’s sit quietly and listen to our students’
speeches. I won’t leave and will listen too. But don’t try to find me—you won’t
be able to. (Applause)

Hello
everyone! At the beginning of the conference yesterday, I met with you all and
talked about a few issues. I said that this conference is mainly an
experience-sharing conference for the Western United States region and wasn’t
intended to be a large-scale conference for the entire United States or for
more people, and that this was because they still have some problems of their
own to solve—it is for this purpose that I have come here. I could see from how
things went yesterday that there are students who have rushed here from other
countries. Perhaps students from other regions as well as some new local students,
or people who aren’t yet students but are interested, have also come today
since they might want to learn about Dafa. Since you are here, I might as well
answer some questions for you related to Dafa, which is also teaching the Fa at
a Fa conference. Now I will answer your questions. (Applause)

Question: Master
said that if deep inside a cultivator still stubbornly holds on to his most
fundamental interests, his cultivation is not genuine.

Teacher: Let me tell you
that cultivation is precisely about cultivating one’s mind—that’s true cultivation.
For instance, nowadays there are laws, and there are some requirements and
restrictions imposed on people, but none of them can change people. Let’s say
they can change and restrain you on the surface, and on the surface you don’t
make mistakes and do things a little better. But the fact is, when you aren’t
being watched or when your interests are threatened, you do bad things just the
same, because you haven’t changed inside. So in other words, cultivation must
genuinely change a person inside. If you want to reach high realms, if you want
to reach the realm of a god, you must reach a god’s realm of mind. If only your
surface is changed while your nature remains the same, it’s not genuine. At a
certain time or at a critical moment, [the attachment] will still show up. So
if a person’s mind isn’t changed, that is just covering things up with a false
appearance. Changes must occur starting with your nature. Only that counts as
genuinely changing yourself. In other words, you have to be responsible to yourself
in cultivation, and you have to genuinely change yourself and let go of the bad
things that you are attached to deep inside—only that is true letting go. If
you seem to do everything right on the surface but deep inside you still guard
and hold on to the things that you don’t want to let go of, that’s absolutely
unacceptable. As you know, a Buddha or a God can give up his life for living
beings and for the interest of the universe; they can give up anything, and
even remain unmoved by it. So if you were taken up to their position, could you
be like that? You couldn’t. Of course, I would say that Buddhas and Daos won’t
really encounter things like that, but that is their realm of mind. A person
must truly change himself before that realm can be reached.

In the past, many people involved
in religion said that as long as you have religious faith you can go to heaven,
go to a heavenly kingdom, and that as long as you have faith you can become a
Buddha. I would say that’s deceiving people. What does it mean to become a
Buddha? What does it mean to go to a heavenly kingdom? There are different
requirements for beings at each level. It’s just like your going to school:
When you’re in the first grade, you have to reach the level of the first grade;
when you’re in the second grade, you have to reach the level of the second
grade; when you get to high school, you have to reach the high school level. If
you keep using elementary school textbooks and go to college while remaining at
the level of the first grade, you are still an elementary school pupil, and so
you can’t to go to college. That’s the idea. This is to discuss it at a
superficial level. What we teach is that you have to truly reach the standard
deep inside before you can go to a heavenly kingdom and reach Consummation.
Some people believe in what is taught in religions and are very pious when they
pray, saying “I did something wrong…” Nevertheless, they make the same mistakes
once they step out the door, in which case their prayers are useless, for their
hearts haven’t truly changed. They think, “As long as I believe and pray, I can
go to heaven.” If you always pray and always remain at the same level, you will
never go to heaven. What Jesus said, “If you believe in me, you can go to
heaven,” didn’t mean that if you go pray to him and believe in him—merely
following a formality—you will be able to ascend to heaven. That’s not how it works.
Only when you stop making the same mistakes after each time you pray, do better
and better, and get closer and closer to the requirements of Jesus’ kingdom,
will you be able to reach the standard of that heavenly kingdom. That is true belief.
Was this not the case, why would Jesus bother to say so much? Wasn’t his
purpose to ask you to do as he said and conduct yourselves better? That is what
I mean. In today’s religions, including Buddhism, people don’t cultivate their
minds and have fallen into formalities, it’s feigned. That’s all I will say
about this.

Question: After
one’s main spirit leaves the body and doesn’t return, how long is it before
this causes the flesh body to die?

Teacher: How long after
one’s main spirit leaves the body and doesn’t return—there’s no set timeframe.
Let’s put it this way. You might think in your mind, “I really don’t want to go
back,” and then as soon as that thought comes up, your flesh body might be
dead, since you don’t want to return. But there aren’t things like this in
Dafa, unless it’s those who cultivate in Dafa while practicing other things and
who fail to be single-minded and can’t genuinely practice “no second
cultivation way.” That’s when people run into this kind of danger. With people
who don’t genuinely cultivate themselves and who straddle two boats at once, in
this case it’s hard to say what kind of problems they will encounter.

Question: The
first time I read about Buddha Shakyamuni in the “Lecture in New York,”
I couldn’t help bursting into tears and silently calling out to Master. I don’t
understand why it happened myself.

Teacher: This is due to a
predestined relationship. I would like to talk about an issue. Through studying
Dafa, many people have understood at a profound level that none of the world’s
religions can save people now. One reason is that the standards are no longer
good, and the other is that gods no longer look after man. There are various
reasons why gods don’t look after man. One is that the thinking of today’s
human beings is that of warped humans, brought about by aliens, and never in
history has there existed this kind of human—one like today’s. History repeats
itself, and there have existed human beings of different time periods multiple
times. But the human beings in each period have never been like today’s. Jesus,
Buddha, and Gods did say that when mankind meets with disaster they would come
and receive man, and that they would return to save people. But when people are
no longer human, as they see it, they will no longer come to receive them.
Those who they receive are the ones who still qualify as human. Of course, this
is discussing it in general terms; there are still many, many facets as to why
warped human beings have come about. That is why gods don’t consider people
human. This is most dangerous.

Let’s not comment on
those religious figures who are politicians or angling for money. I’m talking
about those in religions who still have the heart for cultivation; there are
some people who care much about the affairs of cultivation. They know about our
Dafa, or under certain conditions they have other gods giving them hints and
telling them that only Falun Dafa can save them and allow them to return. Many
people have received this kind of message and understood the situation, and so
they too have come to study Dafa. Yet they obstinately cling to the innate
things they originally had. Their purpose is to preserve what they originally
had and use my Dafa to return. I would say that’s absolutely impossible, and
that they are only fooling themselves. If you don’t let go of what you
originally had you won’t be saved whatsoever, and you can cheat only yourself.

You know that time in the
human dimension is very slow when seen from other dimensions—seen from within a
particular time, that is. The process of thinking about anything in your mind
is a very slow one when seen from other dimensions. Whatever you are going to
think about is known before you even start to think; whatever you are going to
do can be seen very clearly. People believe that others don’t know what they
are thinking in their minds. That might fool ordinary people, but not gods.
What this means, then, is that if you don’t have pure thoughts that are
responsible to yourself when you are faced with a matter as serious as this [of
cultivation and salvation], you won’t be saved and won’t be able to return. In
my Dafa there are many people who were disciples of Shakyamuni, and there are
those who were disciples of other Buddhas and other religions. Another thing
is, those of you sitting in the audience, even though you appear to be
Caucasian, Asian, or another ethnicity, you aren’t necessarily of that
ethnicity. In other words, it is hard to say which heavenly paradise you came
from. When you reincarnate as a particular race, that race might not be in your
original image; it can’t be judged from appearance. What’s more, a person might
have reincarnated in all of the races over the course of his transmigrations.
Nevertheless, I can allow you to successfully return to the original place
where you really belong.

I’m
not saving all of you to the Falun Paradise. The reason is, I teach the Fa of
the universe on the basis of Buddha Fa and have discussed such an immense Fa.
The cultivation form of any cultivation way or practice in the universe that is
left on Earth was passed down by gods in heavens at different levels (I’m
referring to the true cultivation methods left to human beings by gods). Those
gods who offer salvation at different levels are also living beings of
different levels in the universe and, as I see it, are sentient beings of the
universe at different levels. This Dafa of the universe has created for
sentient beings at different levels living environments as well as standards of
existence for their realms. It is such an immense Fa—all lives are encompassed.
That is why I can solve your problems and save you such that you return by
using this Dafa. It can be done no matter which discipline you [originally]
belonged to. No religion, cultivation way, or cultivation form in history could
do this. That’s because they cultivated only what they had in their disciplines,
and couldn’t involve things from other disciplines, since that was the layer of
things they had affirmed and enlightened to from the Great Fa of the universe.
But what I am imparting today is the Great Fa of the universe, which is
different from the cultivation methods known to human beings before. However,
if you are disrespectful to Dafa and you still firmly hold on to something,
then it is a serious issue.

Question: Are
levels of the universe and levels of cultivation the same?

Teacher: I just explained
that Dafa has created different living environments for beings at different
levels in the universe. In other words, Dafa has different requirements and
standards for them in different living environments. In cultivation, therefore,
if you want to reach different levels, you must meet Dafa’s requirements at
different levels. In that case, the advancement in cultivation, the ascending
in realms, and the continual transcendence are matters of breaking through
levels, which is also breaking through levels of the universe. You reach the standard
of the first layer of the heavens today in your cultivation, and a few days
later you reach the standard of the second layer of the heavens—that’s what it
means to break through levels in the universe, to break through levels in
cultivation. When you continue your cultivation further, breaking through the
Three Realms and going beyond the Three Realms, you will no longer be subject
to transmigration. When you go further in cultivation, you will cross into the
boundaries of even larger cosmic bodies. The higher you move up, the higher the
standards for cultivation levels are, and perhaps the more the states that will
manifest.

Question:
Everything from the past no longer exists. Will this still exist in sentient
beings’ memories, or has it already left a deeply profound lesson?

Teacher: The question you
have raised is quite far-reaching. Some things will be known, some won’t be.
Why do I impart the Dafa of the universe? It is because living beings at all
levels of the universe have deviated from the Dafa that Fa-rectification has to
be done. So the universe will return to its best state. You all know that many
prophets predicted that there would be major catastrophes in a certain year.
People only knew there would be catastrophes. Why would they happen? Because
mankind has deteriorated to this extent. As you know, in society there are
crime rings, homosexuality, drug abuse, sexual freedom, and promiscuous sex.
Everything is in disarray. Those involved in these things are not behaving like
a human should, while those who aren’t involved have still been polluted such
that they are indifferent and apathetic, so that they are not behaving like
humans either. Everyone is submerged in this big dye vat, and unconsciously
your notions are going along with and conforming to all of this, drifting
further and further away from what is human. The occurrence of human
deterioration is thus not accidental. Why didn’t gods do something about this?
Why did they allow things to deteriorate to such a point? It has to do with
living beings at different levels all having deviated from the fundamental Fa
of the universe. If one level deviates, other levels can see its deviation; if one
being becomes bad, he can be cast down or drop down. But if the entire universe
has deviated over a long period of time, then the living beings within it won’t
notice its deterioration. It’s just the same as mankind’s not knowing that
today’s human beings have deteriorated to this degree. Only people who
cultivate in Dafa will know, upon looking back from certain levels, that it is
really dreadful. Mankind has reached this point today.

Everything is to be returned to
its original and best state so as to prevent disaster from befalling the
universe; in other words, it’s to prevent disasters from hitting mankind.
Changes are already taking place now. Many people in the human world have
become good. There are 100 million people cultivating in Dafa, and each is
conducting himself in such a way that he requires himself to be a good person,
a better person. Then, as more and more people in this world are conducting
themselves this way—as people are aspiring to goodness and morality is
rising—then will those catastrophes take place? Absolutely not! No phenomena are
just “natural,” as everything has its arrangement. What is called “by chance”
doesn’t exist. It is merely that human beings don’t believe in gods. They term
what they don’t know “natural phenomena” and explain away whatever they can’t
explain as being “natural.” There are no natural occurrences at all,
though—gods are in charge of each and every level. But when the standard for
living beings at each level has deviated, it is just like a person shooting a
gun: If his aim is a bit off, it will be hard to know where the bullet is
headed. That is to say, when the top deviates a little, the Fa will deviate so
terribly when it gets to lower levels. When manifest at the human level, it is
the degree of deterioration found in today’s mankind. So it needs to be
restored to its original state.

While this undertaking is being carried out, some
people might come from different levels. When they return, they will discover
that the environment of their original living space is not what it was before.
You will know that it’s roughly the same as the original form and that it’s
still the original world, but it will have become so wonderful that it is even
more wonderful than when you were born. Many beings were born after sentient
beings had deviated from the Fa during the long passage of time, so they don’t
know what the beginning of the universe was like.

As
for leaving “profound lessons,” there are no lessons for enlightened beings who
have reached Consummation. Once you have cultivated up to high realms
everything will be wonderful. And you will know what once happened in the
universe, that’s all. What will happen to human beings in the future? Many
people are cultivating, and the objective of cultivation is to reach
Consummation. Suppose many of our disciples complete their cultivation. Those
who would remain would be bad people and those who hadn’t obtained the Fa. What
should be done, then, when those people keep deteriorating? They definitely
wouldn’t be allowed to deteriorate further like that! It’s absolutely
prohibited that there be a piece of excrement placed in the universe that
sentient beings and high-level lives have to smell, so it has to be dealt with.
Of course, I’m not talking about catastrophes. The catastrophes that people
have spoken of no longer exist. I can tell you this: The type of catastrophe in
such-and-such year that people talked about no longer exists. Many prophets
knew that if a certain thing took place in a certain year, their prophecies
would no longer be valid. The reason for this is that Dafa is being spread
today and so many people’s hearts aspire to goodness. If the problem were to
occur, what would become of these good people? That’s the issue. But those who
will remain and enter the next epoch will remember the deeply profound lesson
learned at the very last moment.

Question: Many of
us are in scientific fields. How should we view this situation?

Teacher: Many people who
are learning Dafa are established intellectuals; in other words, many people
were brought up on science. Nowadays, actually, as long as you have attended
school—which is everyone—you are someone who was brought up on science. This
science has penetrated all facets of human society, so everything you use,
everything you come into contact with, and everything you see was born of this
science. Therefore, you can’t break away from it, and so the issue you just
raised doesn’t exist. Since human society has become like this, it’s enough if
you just go ahead and do your work well. As for cultivation, that’s a different
matter from work. But the realm you achieve in cultivation and the state of
your cultivation will be reflected in your work; you will do very well and will
always be a good person wherever you are. There are many people who do work in
scientific fields. After learning Dafa, they find that only this is the real truth,
and what’s more, that mankind’s present science can in no way be compared to
Dafa. Dafa disciples in the audience, the situation and the truth of the
universe that you know have far exceeded mankind’s science today; even its most
advanced parts have fallen behind you. Ordinary people are forever prohibited
from knowing things higher than human beings; they could never discover the
state of the universe that I have disclosed to you. No matter what professions
you are engaged in, you can all cultivate in Dafa. As your understanding of the
Fa gradually becomes deeper and deeper your thinking will naturally change, for
a person will believe the truth when it is before him. But there’s one thing
that has to be explained clearly: No one is allowed to achieve Consummation
while holding on to ordinary people’s attachments, and this includes the
attachment to science. You are allowed to begin cultivation with various human
attachments, but they have to be eliminated during cultivation.

Question: Is the
personality of an ordinary person a manifestation of only this life? How much
of it is related to the realm where his life was created by the Fa?

Teacher: If a person’s life
came from a high level, then he will carry with him his strong characteristics
from that high level. This is difficult for ordinary people to detect. Most of
what you do, how you behave, and how you act are all of ordinary people and are
manifestations of this life—your behavior patterns, attitudes, and ways of
thinking resulting from your perception of life, matter, and the objective
world in this life. What is from your original nature can faintly emerge, but
only when you are in a very kind (shan) state of mind. When you are
strongly attached to ordinary people’s things, when you get angry and think the
wrong things, then it can’t emerge one bit.

As
to the part that has met the standard in cultivation, it’s very difficult for
more of it to emerge among ordinary people before you reach Consummation.

Question: Buddhas
not only have immense compassion but also the ability to save people. Will this
ability manifest during the course of cultivation?

Teacher: When you study the
Fa, you should really let go of these attachments. A god—as long as he is a
life beyond the human world, even if he’s a low-level being within the Three
Realms—is capable of controlling human beings. All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas
beyond the Three Realms are capable of saving people. Because they are gods,
they possess such abilities, just as human beings are born with certain behaviors.
They are gods so they have this ability. It’s not quite what you have
imagined—where there will be certain manifestations in the course of
cultivation. You can’t be thinking of these things in your mind, such as, “I
want to save someone after I complete my cultivation; I want to save my family
members, my relatives and friends, and save sentient beings.” I would say
that’s far-fetched fantasizing. That is an attachment and a strong obstacle,
and it will make you fail in cultivation. Only when you let go of all notions
and attachments will you be able to advance unimpeded on your path of
cultivation.

Some religious people have made
vows, saying, “I’ll return to save people after I succeed in cultivation.” This
is actually their attachment to showing off and human behavior that results
from complicated psychologies found among ordinary people. They don’t know a
Buddha’s state of being at all. You won’t even succeed in cultivation if you
have this attachment, as you would be attached to saving people. Whether a
Buddha saves people or not is something that happens naturally. Do you know how
many Buddhas have come to save people over the past centuries and millennia?
There was Jesus in the West and there was Shakyamuni in the East. How come in
such a long time only the two of them have come down here? The reason is that
no matter which god wants to descend to the human world to save people, he must
first get approval from all gods in the heavens before he can come. That’s
because the problems that he will face and run into have a certain degree of
universality, and they will involve the things of other Buddhas, Gods, and even
Daos. It’s very complicated and not how people imagine it. Once you become
overzealous and your attachments flare up, you will say, “I want to save people
too.” That is your human attachment, an attachment to showing off, and
attachments that you haven’t let go of affecting you.

Question: I feel
that the principles of the Fa that I have enlightened to from Zhuan Falun
aren’t as many as those I have enlightened to from Teacher’s lectures.

Teacher:Zhuan Falun
is a systematic work of Dafa, secrets of Heaven that can enable a person to
Consummate. Meanwhile, except for the Lectures in Jinan, Lectures in
Dalian, and Lectures in Guangzhou videotapes, which are similar to Zhuan
Falun and have been published, lectures in all other regions are only
lectures given in keeping with individual, different realms, or given targeting
the situations of students in different regions. They aren’t universal. Holding
on to their attachments, many people want to obtain this and want to pursue
that, as if that’s the only way they can feel satisfied about how they
cultivate. Those are attachments. If you don’t cultivate yourselves in a steady
and solid manner, you are actually wasting your time. If it weren’t for this
spreading of Dafa that was arranged in history, think about it, everyone: Would
there be any other arrangement for the development of mankind? You shouldn’t be
so irresponsible to yourself, as if it were child’s play. When the opportunity
is missed… If my Dafa today can’t save you, no one will ever save you again,
nor will anyone be able to.

You haven’t yet realized what I
was most concerned about when I began imparting the Dafa in the early days.
Mankind has so many theories and doctrines that people don’t even believe what
is said in religions. How many people genuinely believe in Jesus or Buddha?
What many religious people uphold is the religion, and they are not serious
about real cultivation. Do they still have that sacred heart toward Jesus (or
Buddha)? How many people can cultivate themselves? You should read the book! I
had already taken this issue into consideration back in the early days. What I
would face are a great many people, and in the future it would be impossible
for me to teach every one of you face to face, telling you how to cultivate and
covering each and every aspect.

So, to allow you to cultivate,
to reach Consummation, and in order to be responsible to you, I have left
to everyone Zhuan Falun. Through Zhuan Falun you can achieve
Consummation. I have pressed into this Fa everything you are supposed to
obtain. That’s why when reading the Fa you will feel changes in your body,
experience and enlighten to the Fa’s principles at different levels, and
improve in Dafa. This Fa is just so precious. No matter whether it’s the
lectures I gave in person or the explanations that you consider very detailed,
the things I expound on are all in Zhuan Falun. Meanwhile, everything
discussed in Zhuan Falun is encompassed in “Lunyu.”[1]

Question: Is it all
right to have the Association organize some disciples to translate the books of
Teacher’s overseas lectures?

Teacher: That’s excellent.
You may do that. As for organizing some students, it can only be said that you
have to have the enthusiasm for it. Any of you who have the ability can do it.
But you should explain it clearly to your local contact persons and communicate
with them well. This will make it convenient for the Association to contact you
and look at and verify your work.

Question:
Teacher’s words are quoted in introductory materials on Dafa, but these
materials might be thrown away. Is it appropriate to do this?

Teacher: If something like
this is done outside of China, I can only say that at present you are allowed
to do it and that you can do it this way. Doing it inside China is not allowed,
since almost everyone there knows about Dafa and now there’s no need for you to
do such things, and whether a person wants to cultivate or not is his own
business. But in many regions outside of China, people still don’t quite know
about or understand Dafa, so I have allowed you to do this. As to my words that
are quoted, if there are no factors and inner meanings behind them, they are
only black ink on white paper, and don’t achieve any effect. You can rest
assured on this point. But you should know to cherish Dafa, to cherish
every word of it. You should know to be serious when it comes to these things.

Question: Some
students want to use their marriages as a way to have people learn the Fa. How
will Teacher’s Law Bodiesarrange this?

Teacher: About this matter,
I want to tell everyone this: Don’t mix together your personal life with
cultivation, and don’t mix your work with cultivation. Cultivation is very
serious. Dafa is solemn. It’s not like we have to beg people to obtain the Fa.
If they don’t want to, so be it. Certainly the student’s intention is good,
thinking, “I’ll sacrifice my marriage so that you can obtain the Fa.” I can see
that the intention is excellent. But I think you don’t necessarily have to
handle it like that. The Fa is solemn, and your sacrifice for him would then
mean that he obtained the Fa out of pursuing something; he would be learning
the Fa only to gain something, and that wouldn’t work for him, since he didn’t
qualify from the outset. It’s not that Dafa has to be obtained by him. Some
people say: “Teacher, you should teach your Fa such-and-such way. Why don’t
Buddhas save people such-and-such way?” Do you think Buddhas have nothing
better to do and are obligated to save you? Buddhas are compassionate toward
human beings, but they are great gods! Their compassion is absolutely not the
kind of humanized compassion that people imagine; the compassion man speaks of
and imagines is merely kindness. Buddhas are kind, for sure. But that
compassion is a manifestation of the great power of Buddha Fa. No matter how
bad a person may be or how wicked something may be, things as strong as iron
and steel will melt before the mighty power and compassion of Buddha Fa. That’s
why demons are scared when they see it—they are really afraid. They will melt
away and vanish. This is absolutely different from what man imagines.

Question: It’s
easier to experience the magnificence of Zhen’s and Shan’s realms first. Is
there only suffering in Ren?

Teacher: This is the
understanding of your ordinary person’s thinking. It’s just like the principle
I explained: If when you are attached to something and can’t accomplish a goal,
you get so angry that you can’t put up with it but don’t dare to lose your
temper out of fear of losing face and concern for your reputation, then I would
say that’s the Ren of an ordinary person and absolutely not the Ren of a
cultivator. You have completely misunderstood it. Our Ren has utterly no
attachment and generates no anger at all. This is the kind of Ren you should
want, and only this is the Ren that meets the standard. Your heart isn’t moved
at all in front of those things. In the eyes of others you are good at forbearing,
when in fact it’s that your heart hasn’t budged. And that is the Ren of
cultivation.

When some people first obtained
the Fa and began reading Zhuan Falun, they said, “Oh, I can manage Zhen
and Shan.” In fact, you weren’t able to do even Zhen or Shan. You merely
used the deteriorated, human standard to measure yourself. When you really
enter into cultivation you will discover that you are far from meeting the
standard. What’s more, when you constantly raise your level during cultivation,
you will discover that your previous understanding of Zhen, Shan, Ren at
different levels was not so high. As your cultivation level goes higher and
higher, Zhen, Shan, Ren will at different levels have different manifestations,
different requirements, and different states. And that is exactly what’s meant
by realm of mind and Attainment Status. Ren can bring about beautiful
realms, and that is the only way to look at it. When you can’t accomplish the
goal of what you are doing, you burrow into the horn’s tip[2]
and can’t eat or sleep well, you are basically having your emotions controlled
by others and your life led by others. You lead a tiring life without waking up
to it, living for others. If you can really take one step back and let go, then
it’s like “With green mountains, there is no fear of lacking firewood,” and although
that’s an ordinary saying, if you can take a step back, you will find your
horizon broadened endlessly and your perspective totally changed. Steel your
will to let it go, and your realm will change immediately. In that state you
will find yourself light and spry. This is Ren. But I ask that you study the Fa
more and reach realms higher than this.

Question:
Sometimes I can’t tell the dividing line between the realm of a cultivator and
the realm of an ordinary person.

Teacher: I don’t need to
say much about this to you. As long as you continually grow more diligent in
cultivation, you will understand everything. You are cultivating so it’s
impossible for you to shed all of your attachments at once. It’s just as I said
before: The realm you reach in cultivation will manifest itself in every
setting. People will say you are a good person—at work, in everyday life, at
home, or out in society. Why? The state of your cultivation will manifest
itself in every aspect of your life. It’s not about doing something
intentionally, as if you are doing something with intention; then you are
forcing things. Yet as cultivators, we should have restraint and a calm mind.
Do everything with a kind heart, for that is what we should do, and it can’t be
called an attachment. This is the method we use to suppress demon-nature, to
reach the standard of Shan, and to meet the requirements and standards of
realms that are progressively higher. It’s not an attachment.

Question: Understanding
the Fa rationally can directly eliminate the notions of ordinary people and
thus expedite the progress of cultivation.

Teacher: Even when you were
coming to understand the Fa, you all had a period of initial understanding in
the beginning. After reading Zhuan Falun, many people say it’s good,
really good. How so? If you really ask them they can’t explain it clearly. In
that case it is a perceptual understanding, a feeling that it’s good. If
someone asks, “Just what exactly is so good about it?” only after you enter
into true cultivation can you find out what is really good about the book, for
you will have raised your understanding to a rational level. If in your
everyday life all your behavior meets the standard of a cultivator and you
don’t use human thinking or notions to understand the Fa, then you are
understanding the Fa with rationality and in a sober-minded way, being
responsible to yourself.

Question: Can we
use things from cultivation to pay off things among ordinary people?

Teacher: No, you cannot,
and I haven’t told you to do that. That is because things from cultivation are
priceless. Master takes care of them for the sake of your cultivation, yet you
place so little value on them. They are not just what you have cultivated: A
part of it is what Master has endured for you and done for you. You shouldn’t
even have a thought like that. There is no reason for it.

Question: Can
disciples who are semi-enlightened see the Fa’s principles in other dimensions?

Teacher: You should stop
probing into this. There is a large number of students who have entered that
state, in particular those who obtained the Fa quickly or at an earlier stage.
They know everything, see everything, and they can understand everything. But
with the levels they are at, they can’t express it in words, so they don’t talk
or say anything though they know everything. The only thing is that their
divine powers and abilities can’t be used. That’s because so many of you are
cultivating, and if their divine powers were used Earth wouldn’t be able to
take it. There are many people like that.

Question: Some
people have incredibly great confidence in Buddha Fa cultivation, even to the
extent that they’re not willing to use ordinary people’s methods to solve some
problems of everyday life.

Teacher: I can tell you
that there is this type of state in our cultivation: Some people say, “After
obtaining the Fa, I don’t want to do this, I don’t want to do that. I don’t
want to do my work, and I don’t want to conduct business anymore.” I would like
to tell you that it appears as if you have placed the Fa in the most important
position and made cultivation your only priority. But seen from another angle,
you haven’t really understood the Fa. I would like to tell everyone that you
must be in keeping with ordinary people to the greatest extent while
cultivating. People usually don’t pay enough attention to what I just said.
Think about it, everyone: We have 100 million people cultivating, and what if
there are more in the future? If nobody were to do anything, what would happen
to society? How would society view Dafa, then? Wouldn’t that be tarnishing
Dafa? Of course, I don’t need to say anything about the states that appear
after high realms are reached—what I am talking about is what’s commonplace at
present. For those of you who haven’t reached that kind of state, it is wrong
if you want to force something. As to the questions you encounter in everyday
life and how you are to deal with them, those are things in your cultivation,
and I won’t answer specific questions for you. How you deal with them and how
you improve yourself is up to you.

Question: Teacher
said, “After obtaining a Falun, it is as good as having completed half of one’s
cultivation.” Some students understand “having completed half of one’s
cultivation” as meaning, “having succeeded in half of one’s cultivation.”

Teacher: When it comes to
things concerning cultivation, why do today’s Chinese people have this kind of
thinking? It is because ever since ancient times your mode of thinking has been
shaped in a way that allows you to use this kind of mindset and thinking to
understand the Fa. For your cultivation I have given you Zhuan Falun,
have installed a Falun for you, Master has purified everything of yours by
using the Great Falun, and half of the problems in your cultivation are indeed
solved—this is absolutely true. But it’s not limited to just this. Because the
power of this Dafa is so immense, people are made able to cultivate even
faster. As for the thought, “Master has installed Falun in me, so I have
succeeded in half of my cultivation, and even if I stop cultivating today I
will have succeeded half way,” that’s not the idea.

Question: You
said that on one occasion you connected with four or five high-level great
enlightened beings and great Daos. I don’t have a good understanding of why you
talked about this.

Teacher: It’s because there
are obstructions in your human thinking. The Fa can’t be taught according to
your liking! Your not understanding it well indicates that the obstruction you
are attached to is substantial. Don’t dig into the words with some intent. If
you dig into the meaning of every sentence and every line with intention, then
you are completely wrong. I have always told you that you should read through
to the end when you read Zhuan Falun, but you must know what you are
reading. When you are supposed to enlighten to an understanding at a certain
level, Buddhas, Gods, and Daos will hint at it to you and you will immediately
understand the meaning of the sentence. You won’t be given hints about what
you’re not supposed to enlighten to; you won’t get it no matter how you dig. If
you say, “I just have to understand the principles of such high levels based on
just those words,” then you are forcing it. Cultivation is up to the
individual, while gong is up to the master. No matter what methods you
come up with on your own, those won’t get you to heaven—that’s what it means.
There are a few sections in Zhuan Falun that some people don’t feel like
reading. They only want to read the parts about xinxing. Let me tell you
that although it seems that some of the parts I discuss are about supernormal
abilities or other things, they all have different principles within them, and
there are the states of the different requirements that one has to reach in
cultivation woven throughout. You have to read all of it consecutively. Each
time you read, you shouldn’t leave out one section or one word. You must read
it this way. The sequence of the book plays an extremely precise role in a
person’s cultivation.

When I taught that section of the
Fa, I wasn’t just casually talking or just telling you some story. On the
surface, I was telling you what the state is like after one reaches tranquility
at that realm, and how I felt after connecting with them. I still have things
to complete among ordinary people, still have an ordinary person’s body, and
still want to save you. Were it otherwise, their tranquility might not count as
tranquility in my realm. If you, as an ordinary person, were to connect with
them, your mind would be completely wiped out in an instant. All human thoughts
would be completely eliminated. That’s how powerful their thoughts are. You
would probably meet the requirements of very high realms instantly, but it
would not be what you had cultivated. There is very deep inner meaning in it.
Don’t use human thinking to judge the Fa.

Question: What’s
the difference between the two very microcosmic substances in the universe and
the nature Zhen, Shan, Ren? Why is it that the lower the level, the more these
two substances oppose each other?

Teacher: Actually, when you
ask these questions using your human thinking, you are really being
disrespectful. If you could be like a god, you absolutely wouldn’t dare to ask
questions that way. This is what the Great Fa of the universe has created for
living beings; the two substances were created by the Great Fa. That’s about
the only way I can explain it to you. As a being lives in an environment, its
life should be varied and colorful. Take human beings for example: If human
beings didn’t have any joy, they would lead a boring, tedious life—that’s just
about what they would feel. Living beings need to be allowed to live an
enjoyable life. The Great Fa can create flourishing societies for lives at
different levels. This isn’t something human beings can come up with. I only
spoke briefly about the existence of the two substances that cause
mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition, as well as yin and yang,
and only in discussing the origin of yin and yang and
mutual-generation and mutual-inhibition have I mentioned these two substances.
Yet the complicated factors in the universe are way beyond that in number. I
don’t talk about anything that isn’t directly related to your ongoing
cultivation. I have chosen to discuss things that can allow you to enlighten to
principles of the Fa and allow you to improve, and I have done so in general
terms. If you knew too much, your mind would always circle around a certain
thought and your cultivation would be affected.

Question: Many students
go to the same park to practice together on weekends. Would it be more
beneficial for spreading the Fa if people went to different parks?

Teacher: This has to do
with the specifics of what you do. Your feeling is that when you practice
together, with more people, the field is stronger and the effect might be
considerable. When other people see it, they will say: “Wow, there are so many
people practicing Falun Gong! The energy is so strong! Let’s go practice it
too.” There may also be people who think: “People from this place already know
it, but people elsewhere don’t. Let’s split up and go to other places to
encourage people at those places and help them to obtain the Fa.” These are
your own specific matters. Go ahead and do whatever you feel you ought to. With
these things, you can’t have me stipulate something for you. There are
different regions, different situations, and then there are the states of your
understanding of the Fa at different levels. All this is part of your own
cultivation. Discuss how to do things, and do whatever you feel is best.

Question: Some
people think that spreading the Fa means doing the exercises and making Dafa
books available, and that there’s no need for large-scale group practices or
showing videos of Fa lectures.

Teacher: It is up to you
how you handle the specifics of these things, the same as carrying out your
cultivation. I can tell you that watching the videos, group study, group
practice, and conferences like the one we’re holding today are the only forms
of Dafa cultivation that I have left you. Everything else is loosely organized,
including whether you come here or not. Nobody does roll call and asks you to
come. Everyone comes voluntarily. Cultivation depends on your own heart. If you
don’t want to come and you don’t want to cultivate, you may do as you like.

Question:
Caucasian students are enthusiastic about community service and consider
it an expression of compassion and of being a good person.

Teacher: That is merely the
kind of loving heart that ordinary people have, but I don’t oppose it, since I
ask people to be good persons in every setting. But if these things are given
priority over studying the Fa and cultivation, I would say that’s wrong. Being
attached to anything might be an attachment. On the other hand, though, if you
can’t conduct yourself well in every setting, then you have not met the
standard for a cultivator. In other words, as you constantly grow more diligent
in the Fa, these issues will be resolved and you will know what to do.

Question: If one
perseveres in doing the exercises outdoors during winter, could this way of
karma elimination replace the karma elimination in sitting with the legs
crossed?

Teacher: There isn’t
anything like that. You want to find yourself a way out of hardship, to take a
cultivation path that’s free of suffering or that offers easier ways to bear
suffering. That’s unacceptable. But as I see it, cultivation is for improving,
and you won’t always remain in the same state. Isn’t the fear of sitting with
legs crossed also an attachment?

Question: Even if
one’s assistant consciousness (fu yishi) has cultivated into an enlightened
being, one’s main consciousness (zhu yishi)might still enter the cycle
of transmigration. It seems that they are different entities.

Teacher: I have explained
this issue very clearly. In this world, to you, both your main consciousness
and assistant consciousnessare you. You have to acknowledge each. They
share your name, do the same things as you, and control your brain—they’re both
you. However, as to who really governs a person—when you are truly being most
clearheaded, that is—it is your main spirit who controls all of your
consciousnesses. Why is that? It’s because when your assistantspirit (fu
yuanshen) achieves Consummation through cultivation, you don’t know about
it. He is the same as you, has the same appearance, and leaves after concluding
cultivation, but you still have to enter the cycle of transmigration. When your
main consciousness succeeds in cultivation, you yourself know it—“Wow, I have
succeeded in cultivation and am going to Consummate.” Yet your assistant
consciousness is also a part of you, so he cultivates with you while you are
cultivating. When you reach Consummation he will reach Consummation with you.
That’s their relationship.

Question: I used
to be a pharmacist and know some therapeutic massage techniques. Can I still do
massage for others on a voluntary basis?

Teacher: Here you have
emphasized doing massage voluntarily and not making money, so is it considered
doing a good deed? I would like to tell you this: Cultivation is a very serious
matter, I have been purifying your body constantly, and you shouldn’t pollute
it again—that’s what it means. The reason is, bodily contact with another
person’s skin can connect the two persons’ fields. Why is the energy of the
practice site very strong when you do the exercises in a group? It is because
each of your fields, such good fields, are connected, so progress is rapid and
everyone feels great. As for ordinary people, they don’t cultivate and the
fields that their bodies carry are full of karma. As soon as I say this a lot
of people will think, “Oh, does that mean I shouldn’t be with my family?!” You
are cultivators and I have already solved this problem for you, so you don’t
need to think about it and you shouldn’t consciously be afraid of something.
That is to say, if you want to do something with intent, it is as good as your
accepting that thing with intent. When you are massaging someone, you might
have the thought, “I have to make him recover.” Since you’re not using modern
medical means or medicine to treat him—instead, you are using your body to
treat him—it’s very likely you will be polluted. That’s what it means. As for
those students of ours who work as massage therapists to make a living, in the
event that they really can’t find another profession I will seal their bodies
in order to solve the problem of making a living. But if you’re not in that
profession you had better not do it. That’s what I am saying. As for doing
acupuncture or being a doctor who prescribes medicines and injections for
others, that doesn’t matter. Those are techniques.

Question: Can a
person cultivate if someone in his family has had mental illness but the person
himself hasn’t had it?

Teacher: I have said that
you won’t necessarily become mentally ill if someone in your family is. Isn’t
that how it should be looked at? It should be viewed from both sides. In other
words, it’s fine for a very rational person—someone with a strong main
consciousness—to do cultivation. If you have a family history of mental illness
then you need to be cautious, though. If you are mentally ill you cannot
practice. That’s because a mentally ill person’s main consciousness is usually
in a daze, so it’s not that I don’t want to save you. My Fa is to be given to
the main consciousness and is meant to save the person, but if the person is
muddleheaded, who are we giving the Fa to? When the mental problem attacks you,
that is your karma, bad thoughts, and foreign beings at work. Can we give the
Fa to them? No, and this is the reason. So those with a family history of
mental illness must be cautious while cultivating! If you feel that you can’t
control yourself, don’t participate. Those who currently have mental illness:
You are not welcome at the practice sites, and you shouldn’t attend Fa
conferences to listen to the Fa.

Question: My
child is twelve years old. He practices once a week and listens to the Fa
before going to sleep at night. Is his practice and studying the Fa considered
normal?

Teacher: Children have
their own states. If they have been exposed to the Fa and are studying and
practicing, they are actually cultivating too, for sure. We have strict
distinctions between children and adults. Because children don’t have the stuff
formed by those notions and complicated thoughts that adults have, they are
very simple, and so they obtain the Fa quickly.

Question: When I
think bad thoughts in my mind, there will be bad substances generated in other
dimensions. What do I do?

Teacher: Try your best not
to think bad things, and you will be gradually progressing in your cultivation.
Even if you think them, don’t pay attention to them and don’t be afraid. Once
you become afraid—“What do I do now?”—that is an attachment. That’s why we
should study the Fa and read the book as much as possible, and it’s better to
maintain a pure and calm mind. But it’s impossible for you to not think of bad
things at all. You won’t be able to do that if you haven’t achieved
Consummation. As far as what kind of stuff is generated, you are a cultivator
now, so I can tell you that you, a cultivator, are not viewed in the heavens as
being human. They regard you as a god. You will be the future gods at different
levels after you reach Consummation. That’s why once you transcend ordinary
people and carry in your body things that transcend ordinary people—and
especially when you are cultivating during Fa-rectification—not only am I
looking after you, but there are also a Buddha’s Eight Types of Heavenly
Law-Guardians around your body guarding the Fa. It’s just that you don’t know
it. Many people become brave after they start practicing. Why is that? It’s not
merely due to factors on your part. It is because you have a side that knows
things. That’s why your courage is boosted.

Question: I have
been very shy since childhood. Is that a strong attachment?

Teacher: As a human being,
if a person doesn’t have a sense of shame I would say that he is a very bad
person. If as a cultivator you are attached to these types of things, then you
are just a human. Yet there have been many people in the past who, after
starting to cultivate, became slovenly, unkempt, and dirty. If a Dafa disciple
is like that, then I would say you are tarnishing Dafa’s image. As you know,
when I lecture to you on the Fa on whatever occasion, I think I’m dressed
rather neatly, relatively speaking. The fact is, I do that to show you an
example. There are even people who mimic how I talk and how I live, so I pay
special attention to these things. I can’t leave you with a bad example. Since
you live among ordinary people you should pay some attention to this.

I have noticed something: Chinese
don’t pay attention to superficial things and are rather casual. It’s like the
joke I told last time: Chinese people pay a lot of attention to substance, have
an abundance of things in their heads, are loaded with great skills, and the
dishes they cook are delicious, but their presentation is sloppy and dirty. But
Caucasians—just take this as a joke—their food doesn’t taste as delicious as
what Chinese cook, but their knives and forks are nicely placed and there’s
different silverware for different foods and different glasses for different
drinks. They place a high importance on appearance and are very polite. That’s
the difference between Caucasians and Chinese. But I think if these traits can
be combined, with Chinese people being more attentive to etiquette and
Caucasians having a little more substance, that would be better. (Applause)

Caucasians
pay a lot of attention to their civilized manners. That’s their culture. Why
are Caucasians sometimes angry with you? Some people even feel they are angry
with you for no reason. If you harm their culture, even if it is a minor thing,
they will be really angry. Many Chinese people aren’t attentive to little
things. For example, when you enter a store and someone is behind you, you
don’t bother with anything else after opening the door, and the door bangs shut
behind you. If the onlooker is a Caucasian he will be really angry, for you are
harming his culture and he doesn’t consider it a small thing. He will get
really angry at your rude manners and speech. You are living in their society,
so you should pay attention to this.

Question: I am a student
from China. This time when I saw Master I couldn’t help shedding tears and I
can’t express myself in words.

Teacher: You see, while I
am in the United States, it seems that I have been meeting you again and again
over the past six months and that it’s quite easy. But in mainland China there
are so many students who can’t see me. They miss their master very much, and I
in turn am thinking of them. That’s the situation.

Question: There
is a “me” existing in various individual dimensions. Are the various individual
dimensions in the Three Realms?

Teacher: It’s true, they
are within the Three Realms. Dimensions in the Three Realms are the most
complex. If there is an opportunity I will explain the composition of matter
for you further in the future; the extent of the complexity is astonishing. Yet
there is no language to describe it, nor can drawings illustrate it. That is
why sometimes when I teach you the Fa it is so challenging that even when all
human expressions have been exhausted it’s still hard to capture the
magnificence of the universe.

Question: I heard
that scientific research departments in China are replicating pandas.

Teacher: You mean cloning,
right? Let’s not dwell on those things. Mankind is destroying itself. The other
day I said that mankind is cloning this and cloning that, and that as soon as
mankind starts cloning human beings it is the beginning of accepting aliens’
replacing humans. Precisely because people can’t see the side of existence that
is divine, people still feel that their relentless pursuits, their so-called
explorations, are nice-sounding things. In fact, they are destroying mankind.
Human beings are destroying themselves.

Question:
Some individuals in Buddhist circles attack Dafa for not being a righteous Way.

Teacher: Then just ignore
it. They have reached the final stage of the Period of Dharma’s End. If with
these problems we were to adopt their ways of handling things—where they attack
Dafa and so you send out materials to fight back—wouldn’t Dafa be the same as
them? Our Dafa is the Great Fa of the universe, and even though they appear to
be doing damage, they are actually nothing. Going way back to when Shakyamuni
came along, the Brahman religion did the same thing.

Question: Is the
process of transformation from the microcosmic portion to the macrocosmic
portion the process of benti[3]
transformation?

Teacher: You may understand
it that way. The quicker a person cultivates himself, the faster the
transformation.

Question: Why is
it that in the many, many other dimensions within a certain area of the
universe, there is a “him” simultaneously?

Teacher: That’s how
complicated the universe’s composition is. At the time when you are born, there
is a “you” born in many, many dimensions. You look just about the same, do
almost the same things, have the same name, are born at the same time, and die
at the same time, but the quality of life is different. How are they related to
you? I just said, they are born at the same time and die at the same time, and
other than this there isn’t any other major connection. I said that you are
born at the same time, and that means that if they were not born, you couldn’t
be born, even if you wanted to be. And if they didn’t die, then it would be
very hard to die even if you wanted to. So the reason those “lonesome spirits
and homeless ghosts” that people used to talk about can’t reincarnate is that
not all of the “hims” have died. Only one of the “hims” committed suicide and
insisted on dying, so he doesn’t have any place to go after dying. He has to
wait until all the living ones have completed their life journeys before they
can look for their destiny together. As for the main spirit,as I just
said, your spiritis you—your main spiritis you, yourself—and
the source of your thoughts is you. And as for the Immortal Infant (yuanying),
that is the Buddha-body developed in your cultivation from your wisdom and Fa.
Our Fa can enable the human body to undergo fundamental changes, and this body
itself can transform into a Buddha’s body.

Question:
Master mentioned, “Perhaps when you attain the Dao, many people will benefit in
the future.”

Teacher: That is true.
Think about it: If a person manages to cultivate into a Buddha, his parents and
siblings—or let’s just say his parents, who gave birth to such a wonderful son
or daughter—won’t they have their share of the blessings? They sure will. As to
how great this blessing is and where they will be placed, that is definitely
done according to how big their share of the predestined blessing is. But the
person achieving Consummation and becoming a Buddha, with his parents also
becoming Buddhas despite not having done cultivation—that’s utterly impossible,
for they have not cultivated. It is decided according to their share of
predestined blessing and their xinxing. The amount of one’s karma is
also crucial. Such being the case, this isn’t limited to just parents and
siblings. It also includes the many, many people and lives that the person has
dealt with in the human world, and the karmic relationships born of spite. You
have killed, but then you become a Buddha, so what about those lives you
killed? You have to save them. Of course, Master will take care of these things
for you when you succeed in cultivation and achieve Consummation, and these too
count as what you have saved. They have to be saved to your paradise, so the
problems are solved for you in this manner. There are also many, many people
who once did things that benefited you, and those can’t be ignored. There are
all sorts of factors. Even cultivation is not a simple matter, and you can’t
resolve on your own the many kinds of predestined cause-effect relationships
that are present in many things. That too is done by Master.

Question:
When Master met with some students from different regions, nobody wanted to be
left behind. Is it also an attachment?

Teacher: That might be the
situation today. When I was teaching the Fa in China, students all knew—and
maybe you have heard—that everyone looked for front-row seats on the first day
of the class, hoping to get closer to Teacher and receive greater energy. By
the end of the third day of class, nobody moved to the front anymore. Everyone
saved the good seats for the elderly or for others, nobody fought for seats,
and the whole hall assumed a peaceful state. People all have a process of
changing. Of course, many of you here today hurried here from out of town or
haven’t seen me for a long time. You want to get closer to see Teacher better,
and I can understand the feeling. Fighting for seats, though—Caucasians
wouldn’t do anything like that. For the most part these are surface-level
things.

Question:
Veteran students’ xinxing is high and their gong potency is
growing greater and greater. Their words and deeds have great influence on new students.
How should veteran and new students each handle themselves?

Teacher: The majority of
veteran students have cultivated very well, but it can’t be said that every
veteran student is that good. At the same time, I can’t say that you don’t meet
the standard and so I won’t let you come practice—how could I be like that? I
can’t. So, many of your words and deeds can affect others. Yet there is the Fa,
so don’t be afraid. Even a new student will use the Fa to evaluate everything
after he has studied the Fa a few times. Even though you are a veteran student,
he will still know where you have done something wrong. People have their own
minds, and there is the Fa, so these problems aren’t problems. You have all
come through like that. As assistants, as veteran students, you might be
concerned with this problem. The point of concern and the considerations are
all good. If you see it, find a way to solve it and try to ask people to pay
attention to this as best you can. Then as veteran students, you should really
watch yourselves in front of new students. Even if you aren’t concerned with
your own reputations, you should still consider Dafa’s reputation. It is a pure
land here, so I don’t want you to not look inside yourself when you run into
problems. It’s unacceptable if it develops into something similar to [Chinese]
society’s work units.

Question:
Prior to my cultivation, I felt very cold and couldn’t move one night.

Teacher: I would say it’s
better not to ask any questions concerning personal conditions. With tens of
millions, tens of billions of states—you alone have so many of them—how am I to
answer this for you? I can tell you that the states are all good. I mentioned
something yesterday: Whether you feel good or bad, in reality you can’t tell
the difference. I’ll just tell you one thing: It’s enough if you treat all of
it as something good. (Applause) Let me give you an example. Think about
it, everyone: The dirt in human society is high-level beings’ feces. Living in
an environment as filthy as this, as if man had jumped into a manure pit—you’re
all in a manure pit now, yet you still fret over the implications of something
feeling good or not so good. What point is there in caring about those things?
You should hurry to cultivate and think that it’s good no matter what you run
into. And it really is good. If you didn’t cultivate you would never have those
sensations, and that includes unpleasant ones. No matter how good a change is,
it won’t feel pleasant when it manifests in your body. That’s because the
presence of any type of gong or energy carries electricity, and it will cause
reactions to manifest in your body. The gong is so strong and you still
have a human body. If it moves just a little inside the body, your human body
will of course feel discomfort. When you have completed cultivation you won’t
have those sensations. When some people levitate in the air they have certain
states in the air. Ignore them all, they are all good things. The more afraid
you are, the more likely you will have those things happen a few times, because
it’s wrong for you to have an attachment of fear.

Question:To
exist for ourselves yet at the same time be selfless and altruistic—how should
we understand this?

Teacher: Think about it: A
person is a life that exists at an individual level, and if you are taking
selflessness and altruism to the point where you don’t even want to cultivate
yourself and you are no longer returning to your original, true self, well,
that’s just too “selfless.” How could you understand it like that? Isn’t your
cultivation for yourself? However, during the course of cultivation you
cultivate yourself to become more and more kind, to the point where you think
of others whenever you think about anything, thus succeeding in becoming a
selfless being. Cultivation is about you cultivating yourself: You reach
Consummation and at the same time succeed in becoming a great living being who
thinks of others and can make sacrifices for others. Individual lives should
always exist. If you were all to cultivate yourselves to the point where you no
longer have your individual entities, could that be permitted? So I would like
to tell you this: You want to return—you want to achieve Consummation—and
accordingly, your sacrifices will bring you immense happiness. That’s what you
gain through the sacrifices. Returning to a realm that is higher and more
splendid—that is aspiring to kindness and being inspired to transcend. Some
people understand wuwei[4]to mean having no self, having no existence of self. The fact is, it’s not
like that at all. The universe does have levels and, strictly speaking, living
beings do have hierarchies; those are made up of the Attainment Status and
mighty virtue you affirm and attain through cultivation.

Question: Is
stiffness in the legs caused by large amounts of karma?

Teacher: I have already
discussed this. Some people’s leg pain is caused by karma, while for some, they
feel stiff because their legs have never been bent like that before. These are
the body’s physiological conditions at the surface. But whether it’s due to
large amounts of karma or physiological factors, everyone can sit with the legs
crossed. As for not feeling any pain, there are very few cases of that.

Question:
There are already over 100 million people around the world who have obtained
the Fa. Is spreading the Fa still as important as it was in the past?

Teacher: Are you really
that unwilling to do things to spread the Fa? As you know, you cultivate Shan
in cultivation, and when you see people in the midst of suffering, you want to
help them obtain the Fa. That’s something you should gradually come to possess
in cultivation. No matter what you give to others, it’s not as good as giving
them the Fa. No matter how good what you give someone is, or no matter how much
money you give him, he is happy for only one lifetime or one moment. But if you
give him the Fa, his life will be happy forever. What could be better than the
Fa? (Applause) So I think that introducing the Fa to others is itself
spreading the Fa and a good deed. But you shouldn’t force it. If a person
doesn’t want to learn and you force him to learn, then that’s not good. You
have done what you wanted to and let him know about the Fa, and that’s enough.
Whether he takes up cultivation or not is his own issue. Many people have done
a lot to spread the Fa and have spent a great amount of time, and that could
never be called meaningless. The time you lost will be fully made up for you
during cultivation since, after all, you are doing things for Dafa and doing a
good deed. Of course, there is something you should pay heed to from now on:
Don’t try to push people. It’s enough if you let them know about the Fa in some
natural way. If they know about it but don’t want to learn, then let them be.

Teacher: That is right.
It’s not easy for ordinary people to distinguish interference coming from
thought karma. If a cultivator is not diligent and doesn’t look for the
fundamental motives behind his thoughts, it is going to be hard for him to tell
which is which. Why do some people go a long time without being able to eliminate
thought karma? It’s because they don’t try to distinguish which thoughts are their
own. Why do we ask you to cultivate yourself? You should first of all eliminate
bad thoughts through cultivation. The reason you can get rid of those bad
things is that you don’t acknowledge them as you. That is extremely crucial. It
is because you don’t acknowledge them as you that you can then eliminate them.
The fact is, they really aren’t you. They are the various notions, or even
karma, developed from the things you have done after birth—those things. But
people usually see them as part of themselves: “I have a clever mind, and
nobody can get the best of me. I’m better than others in every respect.” They
see those postnatally formed things as part of themselves or even believe them
to be the best. Whatever a person wants is up to him, and only when you don’t
want that stuff can it be eliminated for you.

Why is it hard to save someone who
is mentally ill? It’s precisely because he can’t discern things at all. It’s
very hard for a new student to identify thought karma and distinguish which
thoughts are not himself. If he can manage to do that, he is truly outstanding.
You can use Dafa to judge. Actually, none of the bad thoughts are you. If you
can do it, you will distinguish them and see: “Oh, this thought isn’t good and
should be eliminated. I should get rid of it. I shouldn’t think like that.”
That in itself is your eliminating it. Do you think that those who do bad
things, like committing heinous crimes, or even those who engage in homosexual
acts, want to do things that way and are born to do that? It owes to their
wrong, postnatal notions having grown stronger and stronger, and their notions
have turned around and taken control of them. That’s how they become like that.

Question:
The enlightened beings who save people are usually Tathagatas, but
how do they transform gong for cultivators starting from root sources of
matter?

Teacher: I have never told
you anything like that. I didn’t say that Shakyamuni did it that way, did I? A
Tathagata’s Fa can’t be compared with the Great Fa (Dafa) of the cosmos.
An ordinary god won’t be able to do this in the future, nor was one single god
able to do it in the past. The Fa that was used to save people in the past was
small. Saving people was done with the help of other Tathagatas or even higher
gods. They too needed to worship the heavens and honor higher gods. It’s not
like what people imagine, that a Tathagata Buddha is number one in Heaven—it’s
not like that. If a Fa is small, one lifetime isn’t enough to save a person,
and the person has to be saved for a few lifetimes before he can truly be
saved. But Dafa is capable of doing it [in one lifetime]. (Applause)
That’s because it is the Great Fa of the cosmos, which transcends all other Fa.
All other Fa are what enlightened beings affirm and enlighten to, in
cultivation, from the Great Fa of the cosmos. I don’t know if you have
understood this relationship clearly. Whether it be any enlightened being who
saves people or any Tathagata, Buddha, or God in the heavens, the
characteristics of their own paradises or the Attainment Statuses they have
achieved are all what they have affirmed and enlightened to from the Great Fa
of the cosmos. (Applause) Those aren’t things they copied directly from
the Great Fa of the cosmos, since they were not permitted one bit to know about
the Great Fa of the cosmos before. They only knew the standard at different
realms that living beings in different levels should adhere to, and knew only
that. That’s why they could affirm and enlighten to their own understandings as
well as how to reach that standard. Those are the things they have affirmed and
enlightened to. What Shakyamuni affirmed and enlightened to is called “Precept,
Samadhi, and Wisdom.” Have I explained it clearly? (Applause) They rely
on the Fa of the universe and rely on higher gods to help them. They themselves
can’t do it.

What’s more, some Tathagatas are
different. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha is not like what you’ve imagined—an
ordinary Tathagata. In this realm he is a Tathagata, when in fact, he also has
states that are more microcosmic and that other Buddhas don’t know about. The
level he came from is very high. He affirmed and enlightened to the Four
Greats: “Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind.” Some of you might have seen this term
in the scriptures. That level is very high, far beyond the cosmic bodies where
average lives exist. It means that he has affirmed and enlightened to very high
levels, showing that where he came from is very high. But he only brought with
him the Fa-power of the Tathagata realm in coming here to save people.

Question: Is one
of the reasons human society has warped that the molecular cells of most
ordinary people have been changed by aliens?

Teacher: The life and the
substances of the human body that people refer to—namely, the composition of
this body—together with the warping of the mind can change a person’s behavior
and way of life, while ways of life can also change the composition of the
particles in the human body. If this type of warping is passive, one that is
controlled by some kind of creature, then it is utterly dreadful for human
beings. It’s similar to the question of why humans can develop notions
postnatally and why those notions can turn around and control man. If you don’t
eliminate them, they will become part of you in this life, and may even become
a part that dominates you. In other words, this cultural framework that aliens
have imposed upon people on Earth has completely formed a set of methods for
living and perceiving the material world; it has already become that way. So,
once they have something like this in place, the kind of body I mentioned can
be developed. How do you drive a car? You have to use their methods. How do you
build a machine? How do you operate the stuff they created? This series of
things has penetrated all of man’s ways of living. It has developed this kind
of body, formed this kind of thinking, and developed these sorts of things. I
said last time that everybody who operates a computer has been cataloged by
aliens with a number. That’s absolutely true. But our disciples don’t have this
problem. I have cleaned it out for them, and moreover, aliens are in the final
stage of being cleaned out. Yet there are still some that are hiding, but they
are rarely seen now. They used to hide in those super-material dimensions in
order to control human beings. I have talked about super-matter, and that is
where they hid, so it was very difficult to detect them. Human beings believe
that only the existing molecules are the most material, when in fact there are
things more material than molecules. They hid in those places in order to
control human beings. We have already completed those dimensions—things in
those dimensions have been cleaned up.

Question:
When one goes beyond In-Triple-World-Law, hasn’t one already reached the
Attainment Status of Arhat? Why would one still be a sentient being?

Teacher: You have not read
the Fa carefully or tried to understand it thoroughly. Some people do
cultivation but haven’t succeeded at it, and so they can only live at whatever level
in the Three Realms they reached. People in the heavens, heavenly people, are
also gods in the eyes of human beings. If a person goes beyond the Three
Realms, the first Attainment Status he reaches is Arhat. There is another
special situation, in which a person has not taken up cultivation but has
reached a very good standard. But he doesn’t have Attainment Status. It’s
likely he has a predestined relationship with a Buddha or has a predestined
relationship with one of you in the audience who will succeed at becoming a
Buddha in the future. He is likely to become a sentient being in your paradise,
that is, a citizen in your paradise. In a Buddha’s paradise there are not only
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Rather, it’s a flourishing paradise. Buddhas are the
lords of the Fa and are kind. That’s the situation. If you want to use human
thinking to try to understand things in Heaven you will never figure it out.
With a head full of those things you won’t be able to cultivate. A cosmic body
as large as I have told you about is but a speck of dust. The complexity of the
universe cannot be described, it’s beyond words. On Earth you see people of
white skin color, yellow, and black, and there are certain differences among
the races. The various races in the cosmic bodies are countless—there are all
kinds of them—and there are even multicolored ones. It means that this universe
is immensely complex.

Question:
Mankind’s karma has accumulated more and more, but why is the average life
expectancy increasing?

Teacher: You might have
noticed that the average life expectancy for people today is longer than for
people in the old days. While Dafa is spreading widely, it is a person’s great
fortune to get the life he has during this time when Dafa is spreading widely.
(Applause) Those who I want to save, I will certainly give every one a
chance. It’s not easy to reincarnate into a lifetime when Dafa is spreading
widely, or to encounter this Dafa. People are given a chance. But whether or
not a person takes up cultivation is his own business. There are many regions
that Dafa hasn’t spread to, so people have to hold out and keep living in order
to listen to the Fa at some point, at which time their minds will be examined
to see how they respond. That’s why letting people know about the Fa is of
primary concern and is crucial. What I mean is that when you spread the Fa, you
should let people know about the Fa, but whether or not someone wants to
cultivate is his own affair. Let’s say you reincarnated as this life here, ran
into the Buddha Fa and heard it, but didn’t care, didn’t cultivate in it, and
didn’t study it. Then that would be your regret! The question you asked just
now was about why karma is so large yet life hasn’t been shortened but instead
extended. That’s the reason.

Question:
Is it all right for veteran students to still keep in their homes statues of
Guanyin and others if they have been consecrated with Master’s picture?

Teacher: Keeping them isn’t
an issue, since those are all great gods. If they have been through consecration
it’s all right to have them, and if you have put them there, it’s okay. But you
should know in your heart which cultivation way you cultivate in. You should
know in your heart who you should pay respect to.

Question: Is it
accurate to think that we are all living in Teacher’s body?

Teacher: You can understand
it that way. (Applause) Actually, I can tell you that during a person’s
cultivation, his body is constantly increasing in volume. After a person drops
to this dimension, in order to go back, to cultivate back, his body needs to
change. In order to begin the changes from the most microcosmic level, he must
meet the standard at the microcosmic level of the universe and return to the
utmost microcosm. In that case, the volume of his body has to conform to the
original state in that dimension. So it will enlarge. The more microcosmic, the
bigger the volume. Every cultivator will undergo this type of change. Ordinary
people won’t be able to see you, though. They aren’t allowed to see it. Many students
have seen that the bodies behind Teacher’s body are countless, layer upon
layer, and that each layer is bigger than the last. Some are so big that the
end can’t be seen and everything is encompassed. If Earth is encompassed…
aren’t you at this place where Earth is? That’s the idea. (Applause)

Question: Since
we cultivate our main spirit, why does everything around us occasionally seem
odd and unfamiliar?

Teacher: As for this
feeling, yes, there are situations like that. If a certain part of your mind
has gone through cleansing or your ways of thinking have changed, it can bring
about something like what you described. No matter what, though, if you know
that you are still here and this person is you, then it’s not a problem.

Question:
I feel that Zhuan Falun has already explained things clearly. There’s no need
to discuss with others and exchange experiences.

Teacher: That’s your own
state in cultivation, then. Something like that can’t be forcefully imposed on
others. I can’t say you are wrong, though, since each person has different
states. Also, there’s the fact that new students are entering all the time, so
you should have a piece of pure land.

Question:
Can it be said that the deeper one drops to among ordinary people, if he can
return, the greater his mighty virtue after he succeeds in cultivation?

Teacher: No, it’s not like
that. The deeper one drops, the less hope there is for him. If it weren’t for
the wide spreading of Dafa it would all be over.

Question: Why is
the subject of a master’s eliminating karma for his disciples always not very
explicit in religious cultivation?

Teacher: There isn’t any
“why.” Why are the things Jesus taught different from what Shakyamuni taught?
Why should everyone be the same? Shakyamuni did talk about the subject of
eliminating karma; it’s not that he didn’t talk about it. Eliminating karma is
also discussed in contemporary Buddhism. Shakyamuni talked about many things
during his forty-nine years of teaching his Fa. Those things that people didn’t
understand were not passed down. Later generations picked out the parts that
suited their frames of mind. It’s just like students who selectively read the
Fa—“I feel that this chapter is good, so I just read this chapter.” They only
understood that part, so they inherited it and passed it down. What they
couldn’t understand or what didn’t agree with their notions was not passed
down. When Shakyamuni was imparting his Fa back then, there wasn’t anything
written down. It was only five hundred years later that Shakyamuni’s words
began to be sorted out. How many errors occurred during those five hundred
years of being passed down orally?! Buddhism did talk about eliminating karma,
only you don’t know about it. Jesus was nailed to the cross. Don’t Christians
say that Jesus redeemed people’s sins?

Question:
The term “fellow cultivator” is often used by some students when they address
other students. Since Teacher has never mentioned this term, I feel that this
isn’t appropriate. There are conventions like this in Buddhism.

Teacher: This is a term
invented by people in this world and isn’t something unique to Buddhism; it
isn’t a special term. Actually, the special term definitely is not “fellow
cultivator.” It is yet another term that people later on, such as in the past
few years, have created. As to what term we should use, it doesn’t matter much.
Dafa isn’t particular about this as far as its superficial form goes. You
should be in keeping with ordinary people to the greatest extent while you
cultivate. There were people who used to ask me about how to address each
other. I would tell them it’s okay if you call each other John Doe or Jane Doe.
If we were to stipulate some unique terms, others would really think that we
are an institutional religion. It’s better if we can be a little more flexible
in this regard when dealing with ordinary people.

Question: How
should we look at the problem of “man sealing himself off?”

Teacher: This is a broad
issue, one that applies to mankind in every way. Let me give you the simplest
example. For instance, let’s talk about today’s laws. You know that in ancient
times there were no laws. Since people’s hearts were all relatively kind, there
wasn’t any need to regulate people with so many laws. They knew how to conduct
themselves on their own and behaved well. Nowadays people’s hearts aren’t good
and have become depraved, and that’s why so many laws have been made to manage
people. Human beings are being managed the same way animals are managed. It is
an intangible cage. Yet people are still getting ever more depraved, and laws
are still being constantly created. How far will this law-making eventually go?
Laws will become so numerous that people won’t even know when they have
committed a crime since there will be too many to remember. Eventually it will
even become such that you will violate a law whenever you move a muscle or as
soon as you step outside your house. Isn’t it likely to develop to that extent?
Mankind is simply sealing itself off without end. They are sealing themselves
off not only in terms of laws but also in every aspect of every thing.
Eventually, human beings will be so sealed in that they don’t have any way out,
and the laws people have made will turn around and start punishing people.
People who make laws all have the intention of punishing others because, with
an ordinary person’s heart, they don’t like how others are and want to punish
them out of jealousy. They didn’t think about the fact they are part of the
people, too, and that the laws will apply to them, as well. Eventually people
will be so sealed in that they don’t have any room to breathe, at which time
they will no longer have any alternatives. When it reaches that point, how are
people to still live? Therefore, what solves human beings’ fundamental problems
are not laws but people’s hearts. (Applause)

Every country is frustrated by the
turmoil and instability their societies face, such as public security problems
and the like, and there are no good solutions. They want to keep them under
control by making laws that target the bad phenomena. More and more such laws
are coming about. But those who do bad things still do them when they are not
being watched by the law. In fact, nobody has found the fundamental cause,
which is that people’s hearts need to be tamed and people’s hearts need to
aspire to kindness. Were people’s hearts to become good, there wouldn’t be a
need for so many laws any more. Though there wouldn’t be police, people
wouldn’t do anything against the law. If every person restrains himself from doing
wrong, there is no need for police. Imagine what kind of society that would be.
Isn’t that right? Meanwhile, if there were so many policemen that in the future
every person was watched by one, people would still do bad things if their
hearts were not good. Police are human too, and there are policemen who do bad
things. Then what do you do? Judges are ordinary people too, so who is there to
intervene if there are judges too who do bad things?

What I mean is that the solution
to people’s fundamental problems does not lie in making a certain number of
laws and regulations, nor is it about how to restrict people, restrain people,
or control people. It is about how to awaken people’s kindheartedness and have
human society become truly noble. No external restraints that are imposed on
people can restrain their hearts. In other words, those measures don’t resolve
the root cause.

I know everything about mankind.
Of course, even though I have unveiled these things, I don’t want to do
anything about mankind right now and will leave it alone. I don’t interfere in
political affairs, either. As for what people refer to as “politics,” I utterly
dislike it, and I don’t want to hear or ask about it. Yet I can explain clearly
everything about mankind, and at present I am responsible only for my
cultivating students. However, after more people do well in cultivation, this
strong righteous power will make society change in some ways. People will for
sure aspire to kindness and society will stabilize. But that’s not something I
meant to do. It is the outcome of spreading Dafa.

Question:
Teacher, you said that you are the only person imparting Falun Gong in this
world and that no other person dares to come down here to teach.

Teacher: That’s correct. I
am simply Falun Paradise’s… Falun Paradise was created by me. (Applause)
I am the only person imparting Dafa, and in fact there is nobody else [that can
do it]. The concept that you have imagined doesn’t exist.

Question:
We often feel that we can notice a thought being wrong as soon as it arises.

Teacher: That is good.
Although your main consciousness isn’t as strong as that of an enlightened
being, whenever an incorrect thought comes up you can catch it and you know it
is wrong. That’s because the part of your mind that has completed cultivation
is already very strong, so it is playing its role. As soon as bad thoughts
arise, you are aware, and so they are caught.

Question:
What does the Lotus symbolize? Does it symbolize cultivators’ emerging from the
filth without being stained?

Teacher: The Lotus Flower[5]
is not created in the human dimension. People think a lotus flower looks like
the Lotus Flower, but it’s not the Lotus. The Lotus Flower is created in
Buddhas’ worlds. In Buddhas’ worlds the Lotus Flower isn’t considered a flower,
but rather, it is Attainment Status and the mighty virtue of a Buddha. The
Lotus Flower is not the flower understood by human concepts, though it can be
likened to a flower. Nowadays the lotus flower is used in Buddhism to symbolize
sacredness and purity—emerging from filth without being stained. It grows from
mud and yet it isn’t stained, and remains so clean, sacred, and pure. It’s used
as a metaphor, but it is absolutely not the Lotus Flower of Buddhas.

Question: During
the course of cultivation, how do we experience the advancement and
breakthrough of levels? I often experience relapses in my body.

Teacher: This is all
natural. So you think that you should be able to sense whichever level you’ve
reached in cultivation? That’s not possible. How should I put it… There are so
many people. And moreover, telling every single person his situation in detail
is, for one thing, impossible, and secondly, you would get attached to those
tangible things because of this, and you can’t focus your attention on that. As
Dafa disciples you cultivate yourselves according to Dafa, and only this way is
it the fastest.

Question: Is a
person’s personality related to his inborn quality?

Teacher: If it’s your
idiosyncrasies formed postnatally, that is not your personality but your
attachments, and they are formed postnatally. If, let’s say, some people indeed
have their own traits—this person acts quickly while another is just very
slow—or if there are differences among them in terms of their innate traits,
then that is something that belongs to their origin. What is formed postnatally
are things like, for example, the thought that goes “I just like it this way,”
“That’s just how I am,” “I just like to do it this way,” or the “That’s just
how I do it” that come out when doing certain things. It is wrong to treat
these attachments, these idiosyncrasies, as your own traits or personality.
These things all have to be removed.

Question: How
should we understand the concepts of “universe,” “cosmic body,” and
“space-time”?

Teacher: A discussion of
the concepts of universe, cosmic body, and space-time needs to start from these
three words. The reason is, human language is extremely limited. People usually
believe that the universe is what the eyes can see and what people can imagine.
I have told you about so many levels of the universe and about the concept of
so many levels of the universe, and going even further up, there are still
levels beyond the concept of the universe. I call them cosmic bodies. This is
the term and perceptual concept that I have explained to you, and what human
beings mean by “cosmic body” is different from that which I discuss. So there
exist different dimensions in the different universes within a cosmic body, and
different dimensions certainly have their own times. Those are their
space-times. The dimensions that exist in different times are called different
space-times. That’s how the concept is understood on the surface.

Question:
Dafa’s wide spread in society is the laws of the universe remanifesting in the
human world. Is it correct to understand it this way?

Teacher: Yes, but it’s not
entirely accurate. That is because such an immense Fa is not remanifesting in
the human world: Never, for as long as heaven and earth have existed, has this
taken place—it’s the first time in all of creation.(Applause)

Question:
When they have just begun to learn the practice, Americans wish that the
instructions on the music tape had simultaneous English translation.

Teacher: The translation
work is underway. However, I think that adding translated instructions to the
exercise tape is not so good. It’s just like the word “Buddha”: Westerners didn’t
have any idea about what the word means, but now everyone knows. That is to
say, certain things just can’t be translated, although the explanations on the
exercises tape can be. Terms like jieyin and heshi won’t be quite
the same once you translate them. They will lose their original meanings. So
those terms can’t be translated.

Question:
How can we help those who have demonic interference from their own minds
continue on the path of cultivation?

Teacher: First of all, I
can’t say that they are good students, for a student who has done well in
cultivation would never have this problem. His mind, so steadfast in Dafa,
solid as rock, would strike fear in demons at the mere sight of it, much less
could they interfere with him. (Applause) Trying to touch him would be
like throwing eggs at a rock, and they wouldn’t dare touch him in the least. So
it’s still because these people have problems in their minds, and that is
especially so when there are foreign beings taking advantage of the attachments
in their minds so as to interfere with them through deception. It is one
hundred percent due to the fact that they still have things from the past that
haven’t been given up—[that’s what you would find if you were to] look at the
reasons behind it. If they didn’t pursue that thing, it absolutely wouldn’t
dare to come. No matter whether it’s the living beings in the universe from the
past or all the living beings who have now been rectified, they are all
watching. It’s only because your mind isn’t righteous that you attract those
evil things. If your mind is righteous, nobody will dare to come. And even if
they really could come, gods wouldn’t allow it. As to how to correct that
person, help him to understand it; the only way is for him to let go of his
attachments and study the Fa more. Once demonic interference from one’s own
mind develops, it is very difficult for the person to enlighten to things on
his own. The more others talk to him about it, the more obsessed he gets; he
just doesn’t want to understand. There is no way out when that is the case, so
just let him be. Nobody should bother with him anymore, then. Don’t give him an
audience—just act as if he didn’t exist. Perhaps he will calm down when he
starts to find it meaningless. But those who have done great damage to the Fa
will never have another chance to obtain the Fa, and what’s more, in the future
they will have to atone for their sins. It’s of their own doing—it’s not
because we lack compassion toward them. I have repeatedly discussed this facet
of the Fa.

Question: I’m
very aware that I am constantly overcoming ordeals, but I have never felt any
special changes in the body.

Teacher: Many of our
students have endured a lot of hardships; their sacrifices and the hardships
they have endured are indeed greater than those of others. There are two
reasons behind this. One is that the karma they generated in the past is really
enormous, or the bad things they did were even worse than normal. You might say
that now, in this life, you don’t know about that and that you won’t pay it
off, but how could that be allowed? You have cultivated in Dafa, so I will look
after you. I also have to have you improve in cultivation and have you achieve
Consummation. But at the same time, I can’t tell you that you once did those
kinds of things. Yet you still ask me about why this and that. (Of course, I’m
not referring to the student who asked the question. I’m just giving you an
example to explain these things.) So what do you think can be done? When I see
that you are enduring hardships and suffering, I really worry about you. But
relatively speaking, what has been eliminated is already quite substantial.
What Master has eliminated for you and borne for you is already tremendous;
removing any more of it would not work or be allowed. So what’s to be done? You
have to endure a bit more hardship for what’s left.

Another scenario is that some
people are just attached to their own things and don’t let go. You just don’t
let it go, and it is so deeply concealed that even when you have realized it
you still don’t want to let it go. As soon as it’s hit upon, you immediately
evade it and don’t want to give it further thought. Because you don’t want to
let it go—you don’t want to let it go yet you still want to cultivate, and I
see that you have the makings and are capable of cultivating—I then have to
make you understand. When you are always stuck in that state of being, the
ordeals you go through will become extensive. What [else] could be done, then?
There is no other way. This is one scenario, then, where ordeals are imposed by
the person himself.

Also, while cultivating not
everyone experiences changes in the body as noticeably as others do. There are
some people who just don’t feel anything noticeable. No matter what, they just
don’t feel anything. There have been cases like that. Let’s put it this way: No
matter how great a change you have had in the microcosm—even one that turns
heaven and earth upside down—your body at the surface has been desensitized by
your postnatal life, has become numb, and doesn’t feel anything. There are
cases like that, too. But regardless of how your body at the surface has become
degenerate and doesn’t feel anything, your cultivation will not be affected,
and your progress will not be any slower than that of others. When you finally
achieve Consummation, the obstructions at the surface will be nothing. As soon
as your gong comes over everything will be done in an instant. But those
[postnatal changes in your body] might indeed make you insensitive.

Question:
Master talked about warped society and warped human beings. Could you please
elaborate on this further for disciples?

Teacher: You know, whether
it’s people from the East or from the West, in ancient times people’s thinking,
behavior, and the forms their societies took were completely different from
those of today. Gods all regarded that as the human way of life. But it too had
a process of development. You know that China has gone through many dynasties.
Even though clothing styles changed and were different in each dynasty,
people’s notions, their thoughts about how to live like a human being, and
everything they did in society was really the life of a human being. So what
about things now? This society appears to be very advanced, but that was all
brought along by today’s science.

Why have gods allowed human
society to become warped, then? As soon as this question is discussed a whole
range of issues are involved, so I would rather not discuss it. But I can give
you a brief overview in a few sentences. Namely, there are old forces in this
universe. These old forces are not demons: They are the lives that came about
after things deviated from the Fa over a long period of time. They have no idea
that the universe has degenerated. It’s precisely this type of being who, in
order to safeguard everything of his own kind, obstructs living beings’
obtaining of the Fa, impedes Fa-rectification, and has formed an extremely evil
force. But they are not demons, though they are doing things that demons could
never even remotely aspire to doing. They hypocritically pretend that they look
out for people’s well-being, but their damage is real. The appearance they have
is that of gods, when in fact they are not benevolent beings. These forces have
had a seriously obstructive effect during my imparting of this Dafa today. As
soon as my gong reaches them, they actually become nothing. Once they
come to understand this they will discover that they themselves are in the
midst of being completely annihilated, and none of them will escape the fate of
being eradicated by the Fa-rectification. That’s the process during this
undertaking. Anyway, once this subject is discussed it involves something
enormous, the issues are just huge. So put differently, these old forces have
existed for quite a long time, and they thus don’t believe that living beings
have deviated from the Fa, and nor do they believe there has been any change in
the universe.

So, as to this undertaking of
mine, living beings from top to bottom all know about it. The gods who are the
highest want to cooperate with it, so they have made a series of arrangements.
They believe that doing it that way is best for me. There has been an
arrangement like this at different levels, linked from top to bottom. Yet they
haven’t realized that their standards and their arrangements have become, to
the contrary, obstacles to my undertaking. They have even been arranging human
society from ancient times to the present so as to determine how today’s
mankind would obtain the Fa. They want to use human bodies and minds to
preserve the wisdom of aliens. This is also a trouble, a difficulty, created
for me at the lowest level of my Fa-rectification and saving people. So while
everything they have done is meant to help this undertaking, all of it in fact
acts as an impediment. But the greatest harm it brings to mankind is the
obstruction to people’s obtaining the Fa. This is especially evident in the
disbelief in divine beings that is seen in modern science, as well as its
negation of the traditional ways of thought and conduct of real human beings.
These things are all obstacles to people obtaining the Fa. Aliens are not gods,
and they don’t know that those gods have arranged things this way. It’s merely
that gods have controlled them and opened the door to let them in. With this,
the aliens gained an opportunity, for the human body is something they have long
desired. Nobody can restrict them anymore then, no matter what they do, so they
are doing everything they can to obtain the human body and occupy places that
belong to man. So this is something really complicated if we’re to talk about
it. Saying what I just told you already involves huge issues. This is why the
warped society and the state of today’s mankind have come about.

Some students have said,
“Regardless of how many disciples there are now, Teacher can only take a few
disciples to Consummate in the future.” I have heard people saying this in
different regions. That is seriously damaging Dafa. If what you said were the
case, what would be the point of my lecturing on the Fa here today? It would be
enough for me to gather those few and teach just them. Why would I offer
salvation to all sentient beings? Still, some of our practitioners actually
believe those words. How have you studied the Fa, I ask? This is one problem.
There are also people who say, “Teacher will attach to a certain student’s body
to speak, to give hints to others, or tell certain things to others.” That is
something that absolutely will not happen. I may often use other people’s
mouths, your family members’ mouths, or anyone’s mouth—I might use their mouths
to tell you a few words and give you hints—that’s possible. But attaching to
some person’s body… who’s so special? There is nothing like that whatsoever. Whoever
is saying that has a problem. It’s guaranteed that he is the one with a
problem, and it’s the result of what possessing spirits (futi)have
done.

Question: When I
promote the Fa to ordinary people, I ask them to read Zhuan Falun three times
first. If they then want to learn, I will teach them the movements.

Teacher:
Don’t make it so absolute. Beginners always have considerations of one kind or
another, so you can teach them the movements as well, and their gradually
coming to understand things is okay too. Or, you may give them the book, and
it’s fine if they want to learn after reading it. There isn’t anything absolute.
Don’t standardize it. Some people find it good after reading the book once and
are anxious to learn the movements. But you tell them, “No, you have to keep
reading it first.” Doing it that way isn’t good.

Question: Some students
say: “Newcomers shouldn’t read the book first. They should contemplate,
enlighten to things, and reflect on things.”

Teacher: Whether it be
enlightening, contemplating, or reflecting, under the circumstance that they
haven’t obtained the Fa, no matter what it is you ask them to think about or
enlighten to, they won’t become enlightened, right? Everyone should read the
book and read it more, and then you will be able to correctly deal with some of
the circumstances that manifest during the course of your cultivation. That is
right enlightening. What’s meant by “enlightening”? It is what a person
enlightens to. That’s right enlightening. So if you were to go off
contemplating and reflecting, what would you be thinking about? You should
really filter all the thoughts that come up, and see which ones are you and
which ones are bad thoughts. If it’s a bad thought, you can’t let it continue
to be thought. As for contemplation, you don’t have to try to contemplate
something. When you came to understand the Fa, you all had a process like this:
You found it good right after you picked up the book and read it. Why did you
find it good? You are rational, you have your thinking, and you have real life
experiences in ordinary society, so you know the Fa is good. You knew it the
moment you read the book, but that was merely on a perceptual level, though. By
constantly reading the book you come to understand its value more and more, and
this elevates your understanding to a rational one. So what else is there to
contemplate? If you think, “Is the section of the Fa I studied today correct?
Does this chapter make sense?” then your understanding is going astray. Doing
it like that is definitely wrong.

Question: Due to
shortcomings in spreading the Fa, up to this day there are still not a lot of
senior personnel in the scientific and technological community who are true
cultivators. What should we do?

Teacher: About this, it doesn’t matter
what department it is or what social class it is, the spreading of Dafa aims at
people’s hearts, it aims at individuals, and not at any social groups. For
example, let’s say a person has some authority and he commands people:
“Everyone has to come learn. Not learning isn’t an option.” Then who would
sincerely come? They would come because you forced them, you ordered them, or
out of consideration for friendship; they wouldn’t come for obtaining Dafa. It
only works when a person truly wants to learn of his own will. So no matter how
high people’s positions are or how much power they have, we only look at their
hearts. Nobody can represent someone else. Some of us say that after people in
certain organizations obtain the Fa, they may benefit us more in terms of
spreading Dafa and affirming that Dafa is scientific. I’m not against your
having thoughts like that. It’s excellent that you want to safeguard Dafa and
do work for Dafa. However, things usually aren’t how you have imagined them. It
depends on whether the person wants to obtain it or not. It works only if he
wants to obtain it. If he doesn’t want to, it won’t work. Dafa won’t suffer on
account of somebody missing out. Some students get all worried and say: “We’re
afraid to tell students how to do things at the practice site. Once we tell
them how to do things, students will stop practicing and leave.” I’d say that
might be acceptable when a student lacks an in-depth understanding of Dafa. But
if a student is still like that after a period of study, then let him go if he
wants to. What we want are cultivators, not people who mix in with the crowd to
try to gain something, or people who are here to fill some quota. If
ninety-nine out of a hundred were not sincere and left, with only one sincere
person remaining, that would still be your achievement. Even if there were just
one person saved, it would be outstanding. But it won’t be like that. After
all, there are already so many people cultivating in Dafa now.

Question: When overcoming an
ordeal, sometimes I feel that I enlighten to it and feel instantly relieved.
But later I find that the same test returns.

Teacher: Just now a student asked me why
the state of connecting the Heavenly Circuit (zhoutian), which was
experienced before, is now repeated. I can tell you that in order to maximally
adjust to the condition of ordinary people’s society in your cultivation, the
part you have cultivated is separated for you in the microcosm. The part that
is yet to complete cultivation may have the same problem and have to continue
cultivating; it will be separated when it finishes cultivation. Let me explain
this with an example. There are mechanisms at every level of your body. There
may be bad thoughts in the many levels of your body. In other words, a bad
thought is likely to be composed of the very shallow things at the outermost
surface; it also might be composed of matter that is somewhat more microcosmic.
So some bad thoughts might be present from the microcosm up to the surface.
Therefore, even though this side of you has met the standard and a layer is
cleansed and separated, there is still some in the next layer. Elimination of
the things you need to let go of in your cultivation has to be repeated.

Some people say: “I feel that I
have cultivated pretty well and have been doing well for some time. But why are
bad thoughts coming up again now?” It’s that the part you have cultivated
pretty well has been separated, while the part that is not yet cultivated has
to continue cultivating; it is, however, becoming weaker and weaker. I
know—sometimes the thoughts that spring up are just awful. You don’t have to
worry; the more microcosmic matter is, the greater its energy, which is to say
that the more power it has, the greater its bad influence, and it can control
people. At the outermost surface, the closer matter gets to the surface, the
lesser its energy, and the lesser the energy, the lesser its ability; but the
lesser it is and the closer it gets to the surface, the worse it becomes. So
the worse and lower it is, the less energy it has. That’s the relationship.
That is why even though you have eliminated and reduced a lot of bad stuff and
it has become weak, it is likely to appear even worse. You don’t need to worry
about these things, for you have already cultivated to this stage, and this
means that you will become aware of a bad thought as soon as it arises. This is
something that’s hard to do at the beginning stage. Bad thoughts are being
gradually removed layer after layer. But you should understand clearly what I
said. You might think: “Oh, that’s what it is. I won’t care when bad thoughts
come up again.” If you don’t restrain yourself and resist them, you are not
cultivating. That’s exactly the relationship. You distinguish them, you
restrain them, and you know to cultivate yourself and restrain bad thoughts.
When you do that, you are cultivating and continuously eliminating them, again
and again, and the parts that meet the standard are becoming more and more.
When they all meet the standard, it is Consummation. That’s the process.

Question: Disciples in
North America have used many opportunities to spread the Fa to Americans, but
there are still very few Americans who have really obtained the Fa.

Teacher:
The old forces in the universe have a set of arrangements, and their
arrangements have seriously impeded the things I want to do today.

None
of them know where I come from. I have explained a principle to you before.
Let’s take gods for example. Regardless of which level a god is at, he doesn’t
know if there are still any gods higher than him. And moreover, the existence
of gods is different from the existence of human beings. When I tell you today
that there are heavens beyond the heavens, you all believe it in principle, but
your thinking is different from that of gods. You all understand it from the
Fa, while a god thinks that he sees all and knows all. If you say there is more
beyond him, he doesn’t believe you—he really doesn’t believe you. This is
determined by his Attainment Status and level, and it’s also what his wisdom
has affirmed and enlightened to. Below his level or at levels the same as his,
he sees everything with one glance and can do whatever he wants to. To all the
living beings below his level, he is absolutely venerable. As for me, they can
all see my manifested images and ways of manifestation at their levels, but
none of them can see my forms of existence that are higher than them. That is
why they dare to do as they have.

They think that I too belong where
they are—“This is how I have arranged it, and it’s beneficial to you.” In fact,
they don’t know that I have higher things to do. They do it this way, level
after level, with this level thinking this way, and that level thinking this
way—they all think this way—so they have arranged an obstacle at every level,
one after another. As for spreading the Fa, I originally wanted to have 200
million people obtain the Fa during the Fa-rectification process. Since there
are over 7 billion people in the world, 200 million is still a small number,
isn’t it? However, they have limited it to 100 million, stubbornly holding on
to their warped things and not letting go. Whenever I break through one level,
they still have arrangements at the next higher level. I have to break through
all of them, level after level… only then will I not be restricted by this set
of arrangements of theirs. So their arrangements have formed an enormous
obstacle to my Fa-rectification.

Question: Many people are
looking for motivation for cultivating, such as establishing the concept of
“going home.” I wonder if cultivating without any intention is better.

Teacher: Establishing a
kind of confidence, motivation, or aspiration for going somewhere as the
motivation for cultivation isn’t wrong in principle. But I think there is still
an omission, because you are still cultivating for something. Of course, if you
want to cultivate in order to return, or reach a certain state, I think that as
long as you establish a goal or affirm a righteous thought, you shouldn’t think
about it further. After forming that wish you should just concentrate on
cultivating yourself, as you don’t need to worry about anything else. If you
are always thinking like that, using it as a kind of driving force to motivate
yourself, then after you reach a certain level the requirement on you will be
higher, and at that time I think it might not necessarily be a driving force but
instead what looks like an attachment. But there isn’t any problem at the
beginning stage. I said that a Tathagata preaches compassion. But when a god at
a very high level takes a look, he thinks, “What compassion? What do you mean compassion?”
He doesn’t understand it. It’s not that he doesn’t understand—he understands
everything—but that he thinks your compassion is an attachment. The principles
go ever higher, and the Fa also goes higher and higher. At different levels,
there are always requirements upon living beings specific to their realms at
those levels.

Question: Every
time I attend a Fa conference, I feel greatly uplifted and encouraged
afterwards. But after I have returned home for a period of time, I find myself
not being diligent again.

Teacher: I was talking
about this question with our students yesterday. You’ve all had this
experience. You all know you should be diligent after listening to Teacher
speak in the Dafa environment. But you are, after all, cultivating in ordinary
people’s society, and so everything you come into contact with is about
ordinary self-interest, and everything affects your self-interest. So even the
atmosphere exuded by the society as a whole is about living for this. In this
environment, without being conscious of it, you might feel that everything is
just supposed to be like this, and this will make you not diligent. This is a
key reason for failing to stay diligent. But on the other hand, it is exactly
because this environment can make a person slack off, can make a person turn
bad, and is complicated and difficult to cultivate in, that if you can emerge
from it you are great, you can go very high, you can return, and you will have
others say that you are extraordinary. Isn’t that how it is? So, in any
environment, and in this environment today, in order for us to become
consistently diligent, I think we should read the book a lot, and read the book
more.

Question: The
more microcosmic, the higher the level. Teacher mentioned yesterday that the
different levels of the heavens progress downward toward the microcosm.

Teacher: There isn’t any
“up” or “down” as you have imagined. Earth is round—“down” is also “up.” Earth
is round in the first place, and human beings are upside down one moment and
right side up again another. There isn’t the human concept of “up” and “down.”
The surrounding four sides and eight faces are all “ups.” When I say “moving
upward,” it can actually be understood as going toward the microcosm. To be
exact, moving up to the heavens is going toward the microcosm.

Question: Teacher
used “light-year” to describe time in Zhuan Falun, but doesn’t “light-year” in
physics refer to distance?

Teacher:
When I talked about the cosmic body, I used the distance of a space-time
concept to discuss the time that’s required. Within the same level, distance
can be discussed. From the macrocosm to the microcosm, the concept of distance
undergoes changes along with the differences in space and time. Mankind doesn’t
have a concept or term for distances of a permanent space-time or unified time.
I am breaking away from all times in carrying out this undertaking—that’s my
approach. But any living beings, as long as they are within a particular
environment, are going to be restricted by the time in that environment. That
is why when discussing the structure of cosmic bodies, the concept of distance
can’t be separated from time and speed. Within a given realm, there exist
different worlds or different particles of the same level. They can be measured
by distance because they belong to the same level and share a unified time and
distance. In the process of moving from the microcosm to the macrocosm,
however, there aren’t unified times or unified distances. Everything in the
universe is created by Dafa for sentient beings, including the cultures of
sentient beings at different levels. Fa-rectification not only rectifies anything
that is not upright, it is also creating a new human culture. Past ones are
inadequate. I think I have explained this clearly. (Applause)

Question: Whenever
I experience challenges with emotion (qing), I always have the feeling of not
being able to let go no matter what. Am I one of those people who are unwilling
to change their innermost nature?

Teacher: It’s wrong if you
treat emotion as your own rationality or something that is part of your body.
But if you intentionally push yourself to give up something that you haven’t
reached the standard for, then you are forcing it. Through the process of
continual cultivation, reading the books, and practicing the exercises, a
person can gradually understand the Fa from within the Fa. You have a higher
requirement for yourself and try your best to restrain those bad thoughts and
things that you are attached to; you do your best to take them lightly and
resist them. The portion of you that manages to meet the standard, even if it’s
just for a split second, is then fixed there. It continually and constantly
breaks through toward the surface in this way. When finally it has broken
through completely, when the very last layer is broken through, you will
discover that your thinking and thoughts are completely different from before.
Even your way of thinking will be different from before. That is your true
self, your true nature, whereas everything and anything that you think about
and can’t let go of are postnatally acquired notions which are entangling you.

Along with those notions, man also
has a special environment in this dimension, that is, emotion. In the Three
Realms everything is soaked in emotion. You can’t even be separated from this
emotion—you are within it. Actually, what you need to do is find a way to break
away from emotion. Although what I said is very explicit, those who have
cultivated for a short period of time can’t do it. It’s also hard for veteran students
to completely do this before Consummation. Be strict with yourself in
cultivation and eliminate those bad things. In Dafa cultivation everything can
be changed. If you constantly read the book and try your best to conduct
yourself as a cultivator in everyday life, that will enable you to undergo a
complete change, since Dafa is tempering you.

Question: There
is a region that plans to hold large-scale experience-sharing conferences once
every month. So far they have already held three conferences. I think it’s too
much.

Teacher: It is too much.
Don’t hold them so frequently. It’s enough, I think, if large-scale conferences
like this one are held once or twice a year. If they are held too often it’s
likely to affect your cultivation. I say this because cultivation is the number
one priority; your spreading the Fa is also for the purpose of helping people
obtain the Fa. It’s for you to truly improve and to increase your confidence in
cultivation that we do things to spread the Fa, but we shouldn’t fall into mere
formalities.

Question:
Yesterday Master said, “My original plan was 200 million people.” Does this
mean the prospect for our spreading the Fa is 200 million people?

Teacher: Everything that
impedes Fa-rectification is in the final stage of being eliminated. Yet way too
much of the time prepared for people to cultivate has been lost and is
irretrievable. If another 100 million people come, it’s guaranteed that they
won’t be the same as you, and they won’t keep pace or catch up with you. But does
this mean that we then stop doing things to spread the Fa? No, we should still
do them. That’s because there are still things for the next phase of mankind that
need to be done, and there are still many people who have not cultivated or
studied. You should let people who don’t know about the Fa know about it.

Question: When we
go to remote areas to spread the Fa, I worry that the cultivation program that
Master arranged for the disciples will be disrupted by doing that.

Teacher: It won’t be. If in
a remote area no one knows about the Fa, it is not wrong for you to go there to
spread it, and your cultivation won’t be delayed because of this. Continue
reading the book and practicing the exercises while doing things to spread the
Fa, and that in itself is cultivation.

Question: How
high a level can “selfishness” penetrate to? How can we break through that
level?

Teacher: The reason that
lives can deviate from the Fa and lives can drop down from high levels is that
they develop selfishness. The reason mankind develops selfishness is that many
postnatally formed bad notions develop in people’s minds. Actually, it’s
pollution of the mind. Gods at higher levels are purer and more sacred. If they
develop things that they should not develop, then they are impure. The concept
or manifestation of level that you have perceived doesn’t exist.

Question: Teacher
said that we might not return to merely the places where our lives were
created, but go even higher.

Teacher: There may be such
cases, but it’s extremely difficult to do. There is one point to make, though:
As long as you keep cultivating, and this includes those who have obtained the
Fa, I don’t want to leave a single person behind. (Applause) I will
definitely find ways to have you return to where you were created. (Applause)
As for going to higher places, that has to depend on you yourself. There are
special cases, extremely special ones. Actually, you are using human thinking
to contemplate this. What is most important in your life is to return to your
original place—that is your greatest wish and the most joyful wish. The meaning
of life doesn’t lie in how high of a level a being is at. Rather, it’s about
his being able to obtain what he is supposed to obtain, and then he will be
satisfied. That is what happiness is. But it sounds rather crude when described
in human words. Human beings all have an incessant desire driving them to
explore everything, and that mentality isn’t good. Gods don’t have that
mentality. To sentient beings the universe is boundless and its end can’t be
seen. So every desire to know about higher things is a kind of insatiable,
dreadful thing, and it just won’t work.

Among those who cultivated in the
past, there were indeed people who cultivated very high, but the hardships they
endured were really enormous! Let me give you an example. When I am carrying
out this undertaking, I go all out to continually break through toward the
microcosm and do Fa-rectification; the way I do it is from the bottom up. Where
do you think I have reached while doing this? I have reached a place that is
far beyond having human bodies. In that place there is nothing but matter, and
lives in the form of matter pervade it.

During a special historic period
of major changes in the universe, there were a few gods who were swept to a
particular level and couldn’t get down, so they just stayed there. They felt
that it was terribly dull, and they wholeheartedly wanted to come down and
return to their original places. It’s different from what you have imagined;
it’s not true that the higher the better. Later, when I reached that level
during my undertaking, I sent them back and they were all delighted. (Applause)
Some of what I’m saying might sound pretty hard to believe. While sitting here,
I’m just Li Hongzhi, with the complete appearance of a human being. What I have
told you are principles of the Fa; what I have told you are all real events.
Yet none of the abilities manifest in the dimension of ordinary people. That’s
because I don’t need to use that kind of ability to make you assimilate and
transcend. By using principles of Dafa you can consummate everything.

Question: I heard
that every time we finish reading Zhuan Falun, we can get rid of a layer of
shell? (Laughter among students.)

Teacher: Don’t laugh. I
think it does indeed have that power. What you learn reading ZhuanFalun
the first time won’t be repeated when you read the book the second time. That’s
why I tell you to read more and read a lot. The reason you can awaken to higher
principles is that you have advanced to another realm. If you haven’t reached
that realm, you won’t be allowed to know principles at that level.

Question: Is
there any connection between reading the Fa a certain number of times and the
level achieved upon Consummation?

Teacher: The number of
times the Fa is read can accelerate the progress toward Consummation. But
whether or not you can achieve Consummation also depends on your own
cultivation and some other things. Actually, if you are able to read the book
[well] like this, I know you will do everything well.

Question: If the
social statuses of two individuals who have the same inborn quality are
different, will they reach the same level upon Consummation?

Teacher: Cultivation
doesn’t take into consideration social status in human society. There is no
distinction between rich and poor, or upper and lower class, the way people
classify things—all are treated equally. If two persons are from the same
level, then there is no difference at all, and their levels are sure to be the
same. And if they’re from different cultivation ways, that shouldn’t pose a
problem either. If some people have made special contributions, this will help
them make a huge step forward in terms of the progress of their cultivation. (Applause)
However, I think you shouldn’t focus on that front, and then look for a
shortcut and try to do more good deeds when you go back home. It’s likely
things would turn out just the opposite. It’s not that you can accomplish
whatever you want to do.

Question: Some
individual assistants don’t meet the requirements of Dafa, and some students
have asked to replace them. How should we deal with this?

Teacher: If this person
damages the Fa he must be replaced. Even if he isn’t replaced, I think that
none of the students will stay with him anymore, so he will naturally no longer
be an assistant. If it’s not because he damages Dafa but just that he has
problems with his methods of doing work, then you can kindheartedly tell him
where he did wrong. He might realize it, or he might not. But he is a
cultivator too and will eventually have to realize it; perhaps there needs to
be a process. In that case, have we become really attached to his mistakes
during this process and can’t let it go? If so, then you have become attached
to it, and it turns out you are looking outward. Why can’t you think about why
you saw his mistake? It’s his mistake, but why are you so unhappy about it? Is
it because there is something that you didn’t do right? Why do you
consider it such a big deal? No matter what the situation, when you encounter a
problem you should always cultivate yourself and examine yourself.

If this assistant has really
cultivated pretty well, when he has a problem and you point it out to him he is
sure to examine himself. If others point out problems to an assistant and he
doesn’t look at himself, then I would say the assistant has studied the Fa
poorly and needs to make big improvements. (Applause) This isn’t about
being lenient with anyone. It’s because you are all in the process of cultivating
yourselves and all have attachments and things that you can’t let go. Maybe
you’re right, maybe not. And your being wrong might cause you to see another
person’s being right as being wrong, or your being right might cause you to see
another person’s being wrong as being right.

You are all cultivating. You all
applauded a moment ago when you heard me say these words—I said that I would
try my best not to leave behind a single disciple who has obtained the Fa. If I
can do even that, can’t you at least treat everyone with kindness? (Applause)
If you can all search deep within yourselves whenever you encounter
conflicts—asking “Is it because I have a problem?”—I would say that everything
will be easy to deal with, and the speed of your cultivation will be very, very
fast. But I can only talk about this topic with you like this. As you go
through your cultivation, you might know very well that you are wrong but still
have a hard time handling it, so I can only tell you to try your best to do
well and stay diligent. Conflicts are inevitable. Without conflicts there
wouldn’t be any improvement. If assistants did well, students did well, and
nobody had any conflicts in this setting, who would be happy? Demons would be
happy, and I wouldn’t be. The reason is, you would lose your cultivation
environment, you wouldn’t be able to improve, and you wouldn’t be able to
achieve the goal of returning. So you shouldn’t view conflicts as bad.

I often say that there is no harm
in enduring a little hardship. Haven’t you realized that conflicts are also a
form of hardship? (Applause) That’s why in recent times things of this
sort were relatively more frequent among our Dafa disciples in the U.S. Of
course, you didn’t obtain the Fa as early as the students in mainland China, after
all. Your understanding progressed so rapidly, so that process is already over.
I think that from now on… Especially in the recent period of time, things have
been quite good, and veteran students’ understandings of the Fa are very high,
and they won’t do extreme things as before. This is very good. I think that
from now on things will become better and better, for you are maturing and your
understanding of the Fa is climbing ever higher.

Some people have said: “Teacher, I
really worry that my legs don’t feel any pain when I sit with them crossed. Is
it true that without hardships my cultivation isn’t moving very fast?” If other
people can understand that much, why can’t you feel happy when conflicts arise?
[Why not think,] “Ah, here comes an opportunity for me to improve.” When people
run into a conflict, they all push it away, trying to put it on someone else.
That’s why you become carefree and think it’s pretty good when you don’t have
any conflicts, and then when conflicts do show up you don’t like it. Conflict
in itself is part of cultivating amidst hardship. Some people say that they
don’t interact much with society since they are getting on in their years.
Though your age may be advanced, you will be made to, so that you may improve
and achieve Consummation, think about distressing things from your past like
those “eight years of millet and ten years of chaff,” even when you do nothing
more than just sit on your bed. You will be made to feel angry when you sit
there, so angry that you can’t stand it, after which you will realize: “Hey,
I’m a cultivator. I shouldn’t be angry like this.” It is to eliminate your
attachment. In any case, if you just want things to be pleasant you won’t have
any way to improve, so I can’t let that happen. (Applause)

Only in the midst of conflicts can
human attachments be eliminated, and only in the midst of conflicts can a
person know where he went wrong. Whenever you get into a conflict with others,
I guarantee that it is because your attachment has surfaced and is quite
obvious. If you don’t seize that moment and you stay bull-headed and argue your
points, the process of your stubbornly arguing is none other than that
attachment showing itself. If you can dig further to see what is behind it, the
root of the attachment will be found. (Applause) So, in cultivation you
should conscientiously cultivate yourselves, and you can’t always be thinking
about asking my Law Bodiesto give you hints. Law Bodies will never
directly tell you what to do.

As you know, I just told you that
during the Fa-rectification I continuously break through toward the microcosm.
What makes that possible? It’s because I have grabbed the main portion of all
the different individual levels and brought them here with me (applause)
so that they can’t escape. Of course, there is one problem: During the course
of annihilation, when they are being annihilated into something like dust and
are falling down—they’re annihilated because they are degenerate, even worse
than demons, and when they are being annihilated, because they are evil beings,
they still want to do bad things just before they die—they purposely fall on
Beijing.

As you know, people are so worried
about the weather in Beijing. What’s wrong with Beijing? The weather in the
past two years has been such that it looks cloudy but it isn’t clouds, and it
looks foggy yet it isn’t fog. The particles of floating substances in the air
are all quite large, and even the naked eye can see them. It’s said that it is
exhaust fumes from cars, so people started to control automobile emissions. I
think it has nothing to do with automobiles. What automobiles emit is mostly
carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, while the floating substances in the air
are mostly nitride. There are so many automobiles in the U.S. that cars on
highways flow like water; it has been like that for decades, yet they don’t
have this degree of pollution that Beijing does. So it’s not a problem caused
by cars. It’s also said that it comes from industrial pollution. Even though
pollution in developing countries is quite serious, it hasn’t reached this
extent, though—not to mention that there aren’t that many heavy-pollution
industries in Beijing. Some people say it’s from burning coal. But nowadays
people use built-in heating systems, and chimneys are scarce. And even in the
old days when coal furnaces were used, and every household had a coal-burning
stove, it wasn’t polluted to the degree it is now. Today’s is a different type
of pollution. Of course, people won’t believe it, and I don’t need to tell
them. Whatever people want to say it is, that’s fine.

It is actually the very degenerate
substances from the annihilated microcosmic dimensions continuously falling
down. When you fly in an airplane, after the airplane takes off five hundred
meters from the airport you will see a nice looking blue sky, but when you look
down, “Oh, my”—it looks as if a lid has covered everything. Where did it come
from and why doesn’t it ever disperse? It came from the microcosm. That is why
its origin can’t be detected. It comes from the particles smaller than the
surface molecules, so people can’t figure out where it is from. It was
eventually determined to be nitride. About nitride (those of you who study
chemistry might know this), it is the dust of organic substances, and it’s the
same as the smoke from an incinerator. In fact, it is generated from the
annihilation of those degenerate microcosmic lives.

Question:
Teacher’s essays “Remaking Mankind,” “Degeneration,” and “Dialogue with Time”
were written in 1996 and 1997. Why did you wait until 1998 to let us see them?

Teacher: There were reasons
for the timing of when I brought them out and let you see them. They were
published later because I wrote them upon seeing certain things surface. Once
they became widespread I published them. (Applause)

Question: As the
structure of the universe that Teacher discusses gets bigger and bigger, my
views and breadth of mind seem to be expanding. The objective of Teacher’s
discussing this is…?

Teacher: Didn’t you just
spell it out? As a matter of fact, I am expanding your capacity, and everything
belonging to you needs to expand and grow along with it. I said that a cosmic
body is still but a speck of dust in the universe. Whatever I told you that you
could understand and what is larger than that by billions or trillions of times
is still but a speck of dust in the universe. Nobody else knows what the
universe ultimately is. (Applause) Moreover, the universe and what it
contains is enormous and complicated, and the human mind can’t contain it all.
There is no such language, so it is impossible for me to describe it for you.
In fact, no matter how I have described it, be it like this or that, it hasn’t
gone beyond one system. It’s similar to the fact that Earth is a particle, but
I tell you that particles similar to Earth pervade the universe’s cosmic
bodies; it’s just like the particles of a certain size in the air that compose
air molecules, which permeate everything and are everywhere. So then how
enormous do you think their cosmic bodies are?! What I have told you is an
explanation from within one system, and the degree of complexity is simply
beyond words. And it can’t be illustrated by drawings either, because the
complexity of the structure is beyond what trillions of intersecting
three-dimensional planes could illustrate, so it is very hard to explain it to
you clearly. (Applause) Nonetheless, through Zhuan Falun, or when
you reach a certain level in cultivation, you will come to comprehend it in
your mind and you will feel its enormity, though you won’t be able to express
it in words. (Applause)

Question: Why is
emotionso difficult to part with?

Teacher: Let me tell you: A
human being, this shell of yours, is born within this emotion and has been
immersed in emotion since birth. The bodily cells that compose this shell are
born in emotion’s environment. If you part from it you are no longer a human
but a god. When people get attached to emotion they are actually being passive,
even though they think they are being active.

Question:
Homosexuality is sinful, but I have sunk into agony and despair. I believe in
Zhen-Shan-Ren, but am I worthy of cultivation?

Teacher: Being incorrectly
guided by the prevailing thinking, being corroded by the incorrect, predominant
publicity as well as this environment, people might make a lot of mistakes, but
that doesn’t mean they are hopeless. You can study Dafa and correct those wrong
thoughts and behaviors of yours. It’s just like what I said—why would a person
be homosexual? Actually, human beings are passively attached to emotion. And
when you are attached to it, it will create all kinds of attachments in your
mind. From those attachments, all kinds of notions or even degenerate notions
will be generated. You might suddenly like a particular mannerism of that
person or maybe his appearance, and then for quite some time you are infatuated
with those things. Or perhaps you just like a person’s attitude and manner, and
then a notion forms over time so that you just like his particular manner. Then,
as that thing gradually becomes stronger and stronger, it will come to control
your mind. After your like for something forms a notion, it will grow stronger
and stronger. And if that mental state is one that’s warped, slowly that
degenerate thought will develop and expand, becoming even more warped. So
homosexuality is something warped that exists within emotion. It’s in fact also
a notion that has formed, albeit a degenerate one.

But at this time people all treat
these things as part of themselves. They are actually things formed by your
incorrect postnatal perceptions having gained control of you, yet you think
they’re your own thoughts. People never believe that their notions aren’t part
of themselves, so it’s certain you don’t know about the thought karma you
yourself have formed. You have never thought about whether or not any of the
thoughts manifested by thought karma are really you. In fact, the thoughts
manifesting in your mind might not always be you. But it’s not impossible for
those incorrect thoughts to be corrected, since studying Dafa is to have people
take an upright path and do better. I think everything can be corrected in
Dafa. There isn’t any problem, and you can study the Fa. But you should be
really responsible to yourself and should especially reject those thoughts.
They are harming you, they are asking you to do things that aren’t human, and
they are dragging you toward hell. Yet people with warped mindsets still
believe that it’s part of themselves. As soon as that thought comes up, telling
you to like someone of the same sex, you must remember that it is not you and
is here to harm you again. But because you have passively gone along with it
for a long time, you think it’s pretty good after having gone along with it,
and so you have become a homosexual. That mindset must be corrected.

Question: I’m
fifty years old, but some students find that I am sixteen or seventeen years
old when they look. Is that the “me” in the other dimension or the “me” who is
cultivating?

Teacher: I have discussed
this question before. While you are sitting here, no matter how old you are,
that isn’t the age of your innate nature, and nor is it your real age. This is
what manifests within the time and environment of human beings. Perhaps you are
in your sixties or seventies, but your main spirit is just seven or eight years
old; perhaps you are in your forties or fifties, and your main spirit is only
seventeen or eighteen years old. Through your cultivation, however, you—and
this includes your surface layer at the human level—are transforming into the
best and the youngest state. This is certain.

Question: I am a
Westerner and a professional magician. I think that David’s magic can be
performed without using supernormal abilities. I believe what you said is true,
but deep down inside I’m still unsure.

Teacher: Magic is a
technique, and it relies on sleight of hand or the veil of props. It should never
be confused with supernormal abilities. However, when a person hones a few
specific skills, a state similar to supernormal abilities can develop. For
example, some people take off their hats and toss them back and forth—this hand
throws and the other hand catches. They throw them very fast, and even though
their hands don’t seem to move very fast, they can still catch them. This means
that after a long period of time, they can develop a kind of equalized time
difference that is similar to a supernormal ability, and so that kind of effect
can be achieved.

As you know, Tai-chi Chuan is slow
and leisurely. So how is it that it can be used in real combat? Although it
appears to be slow and leisurely, its supernormal ability can equalize time. It
doesn’t use the time in this dimension. Your human eyes see that it’s slow, but
it is actually moving very fast. No matter how fast you throw a punch, you are
not as fast as he is; he moves slowly and leisurely but he has hit you before
you know it. Due to the fact that none of the mind-guiding principles of
Tai-chi Chuan were passed down, people today don’t know the real factors behind
Tai-chi Chuan. You know that this difference is one that has to do with time
and space, and the disparity is quite large. We Easterners have heard about
legendary “magic feet,” where you see an old man walking who walks very slowly
and leisurely, but you can’t catch up with him, even on horseback. This means
that he doesn’t move in the same dimension. I have found that when magic
reaches a very skilled level, magicians sometimes carry a very weak form of
this thing, but they themselves don’t notice it. They don’t know it themselves
and they think it’s a skill. “Practice makes perfect”—perhaps that’s what it
means. But they can’t perform supernormal-ability magic.

Question: When we
translate or proofread Dafa books, how can we avoid mixing in our own human
notions or human things?

Teacher: In mainland China,
back when they had just started translating the English version, they used to
argue a lot. Why did they argue? They always felt that others’ translations
weren’t good, while others likewise felt that their translations weren’t good.
It owes to the fact that any two people will not be in the same realm or at the
same level. They can’t articulate with words what they have enlightened to, so
they feel that the other person is wrong. As soon as a person expresses it
verbally, even he himself doesn’t find it right, and others don’t find it right
either. Why is that? Principles at high levels can only be understood
cognitively, and cannot be expressed in words. I said something long ago,
namely, that if you want to spell out the high-level principles in Zhuan
Falun, that’s absolutely not allowed, and you couldn’t even if you wanted
to. That’s because high-level principles can’t be shown to people and cannot
manifest in the human world. You can only be allowed to see them during the
course of your cultivation; cultivators can know them, but other people can’t.
That’s how it works. So, if you want to translate the books, you can only
translate the most superficial meaning of the words, and that’s enough. If the surface
meanings of the words are translated accurately, when I add the inner meanings
behind them it will naturally be the Fa and will work. That’s how translation
matters are.

Oftentimes you all think, “You’re
wrong,” or “I’m right,” and start arguing. Actually, after you say what you
want to say, you find that even what you have said is wrong. It means that you
can only understand it cognitively and cannot express it verbally. Principles
understood at high levels can’t be written down in human language. So if you
want to put it into writing, it’s enough if you accurately translate the
surface meaning of the words. Try your best to find accurate words to translate
the Fa, and this way it will be hard for you to add in your own notions.

Question: I saw a
bright, white Falun many times. In the middle there was a red . Did I go
astray?

Teacher: No, you didn’t.
The colors you saw were caused by reasons related to your Third Eye, and you
didn’t go astray. The Falun is a miniature of the universe, and in the universe
it has several colors that are ever changing—red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, purple, white, and colorless—there are quite a few colors, not just
one. We feel that this color is bright, relatively speaking, so we use it as
the symbol of our Dafa. Aside from the gold color of the and the colors of the Tai-ji
that don’t change, other colors may change. What’s more, the composition of
color for things in other dimensions is different from that of the colors in
this dimension of human beings, which are composed of molecules. Colors in
those dimensions are composed of material particles that are more refined.
That’s why they look so brilliant and refined, and are incredibly beautiful.

Through the Fa conference over the
past two days, and especially through students’ speeches that were given
yesterday afternoon, many students have been deeply touched. Fa conferences are
an opportunity for you to find where you have fallen behind and to build
confidence in cultivation. So you should incorporate what you have gained and
understood from this conference into your ensuing cultivation, truly improve as
quickly as possible, and waste no time in becoming diligent. This is the most
crucial thing.

Holding Fa conferences in and of
itself isn’t the goal. The goal is to help you better improve yourselves. I
also know that your understanding of the Fa is becoming higher and higher.
There are many things I don’t need to say anything about, including the
questions I answered today—you understand many things.

Originally this Fa conference was
intended to be a regional experience-sharing conference for the Western U.S.,
but now it has become an expanded one. No matter where you came from, take back
with you the insights you have learned from this conference. At the very least,
you should have improved yourself some from this conference, and only then will
the thousands of miles you traveled not be in vain. (Applause)

Question:
Disciples from different regions and different countries would like to, on behalf
of disciples in their own regions or countries, send their regards to Master.

Teacher: I thank you all. (Applause)

I don’t want to say anything more.
I hope that you will be ever more diligent, have higher understandings, break
through levels more rapidly, reach Consummation, and achieve the Unlocking of
Gong and full Enlightenment as soon as possible.